Hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronically infects 250 million people worldwide, resulting in nearly one million deaths annually. Studies in recent years have significantly improved our knowledge on the mechanisms of HBV persistence. HBV uses multiple pathways to harness host innate immunity to enhance its replication. It can also take advantage of the developing immune system and the not-yet-stabilized gut microbiota of young children to facilitate its persistence, and use maternal viral e antigen to educate immunity of the offspring to support its persistence after vertical transmission. The knowledge gained from these recent studies paves the way for the development of new therapies for the treatment of chronic HBV infection, which has so far been very challenging.

乙型肝炎病毒 (HBV) 长期感染全球 2.5 亿人，每年导致近百万人死亡。近年来的研究显着提高了我们对乙型肝炎病毒持续存在机制的认识。乙型肝炎病毒利用多种途径利用宿主先天免疫来增强其复制。它还可以利用幼儿正在发育的免疫系统和尚未稳定的肠道微生物群来促进其持续存在，并利用母体病毒e抗原来教育后代的免疫力，以支持其在垂直传播后的持续存在。从这些最近的研究中获得的知识为开发治疗慢性乙型肝炎病毒感染的新疗法铺平了道路，迄今为止，这一直是非常具有挑战性的。