Technical University of Munich Jul 11 2024 In chronic hepatitis B, the liver contains immune cells that could destroy hepatitis B virus infected cells but are inactive. A team from the Technical University of Munich has discovered that cells blood vessels in the liver start a "sleep timer" that switches off immune cells. Targeting this mechanism could be a starting point for immunotherapies.
"In chronic hepatitis B, the body's immune system tries to destroy infected liver cells, causing long-term damage and still does not get rid of the virus," says Percy Knolle, Professor of Molecular Immunology at TUM. Notably, in in chronic infections, some immune cells whose receptors could recognize and destroy the Hepatitis B virus, are inactive.
"We show that the endothelial cells start a kind of molecular sleep timer in certain immune cells – cytotoxic T cells that can detect hepatocytes infected with the hepatitis B virus," says Dr. Miriam Bosch, first author of the study. "The timer starts running as soon as the T cells get into contact with the infected hepatocytes.
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