Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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MDPI, Biomolecules, 3(12), p. 470, 2022

DOI: 10.3390/biom12030470

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PD-L1 Silencing in Liver Using siRNAs Enhances Efficacy of Therapeutic Vaccination for Chronic Hepatitis B

Journal article published in 2022 by Till Bunse ORCID, Anna D. Kosinska, Thomas Michler ORCID, Ulrike Protzer ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

In chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, virus-specific T cells are scarce and partially dysfunctional. Therapeutic vaccination is a promising strategy to induce and activate new virus-specific T cells. In long-term or high-level HBV carriers, however, therapeutic vaccination by itself may not suffice to cure HBV. One reason is the impairment of antiviral T cells by immune checkpoints. In this study, we used small-interfering RNA (siRNA) in combination with a heterologous prime-boost therapeutic vaccination scheme (TherVacB) to interfere with a major immune checkpoint, the interaction of programmed death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PDL-1). In mice persistently replicating HBV after infection with an adeno-associated virus harboring the HBV genome, siRNA targeting PD-L1 resulted in a higher functionality of HBV-specific CD8+ T cells after therapeutic vaccination, and allowed for a more sustained antiviral effect and control of HBV in peripheral blood and in the liver. The antiviral effect was more pronounced if PD-L1 was down-regulated during prime than during boost vaccination. Thus, targeting PD-L1 using siRNA is a promising approach to enhance the efficacy of therapeutic vaccination and finally cure HBV.