Virus Spread in the Liver: mechanisms, commonalities, and Unanswered Questions

Abstract

The liver is home to five known human hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A virus–hepatitis E virus). Despite being phylogenetically unrelated, these viruses replicate and spread in the liver without causing apparent cytopathic effects, and all have evolved strategies to counteract antibody-mediated inhibition of virus spread. In this review, we discuss the current understanding regarding the spread mechanisms for these viruses with an attempt to extract common principles and identify key questions for future studies.

Keywords:

• antibody neutralization
• cell-to-cell transmission
• hepatitis A virus
• hepatitis B virus
• hepatitis C virus
• hepatitis D virus
• hepatitis E virus
• quasi-envelopment
• virus entry
• virus spread

Acknowledgements

The authors thank M Peeples and J Zhu for critical reading the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work is supported in part by grants from National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01AI139511, R21AI137912) and the Gilead Science Research Scholars Program in Liver Disease (Z Feng). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.