Hepatitis Delta Could Be More Frequent than Previously Thought
José V. Fernández-Montero 1, Vicente Soriano 2
1 Department of Internal Medicine, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago (CHUS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; 2 UNIR Health Sciences School and Medical Center, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Madrid, Spain
*Correspondence: José V. Fernández-Montero, Email not available
Abstract
HDV is a unique defective agent that only infects humans and requires the presence of hepatitis B to complete its life replication cycle within hepatocytes. Accordingly, hepatitis delta is believed to occur exclusively in serum HBsAg+ individuals. Indeed, it has not been recognized in patients with resolved hepatitis B (Aguilera et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018;30:1063-5). Hepatitis delta produces the most severe form of chronic viral hepatitis, with more rapid progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer than hepatitis B alone or hepatitis C. Furthermore, in contrast with successful antiviral therapies to treat HBV or HCV, to date, there is no efficacious treatment for hepatitis delta, although some experimental drugs including lonafarnib, REP-2139, and myrcludex will soon be tested in Phase 3 clinical trials (Soriano et al. J Infect Dis. 2018;217:1173-6; Wedemeyer et al., Gut, In Press).
