Oncogenic Viruses - Chapter 8: Strategies for the development of hepatitis B virus vaccines

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic virus capable of evading immune defense, usually leading to chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The death rate in case of patients suffering from liver cancer associated with hepatitis B oncovirus is on the rise. Thus to effectively reduce the incidence of this disease, vaccination with preventive HBV vaccines is essential, and continuous development of therapeutic vaccines is needed to treat patients with preexisting infection. The prophylactic vaccines against HBV are based essentially on virus-like particles by expressing the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg), the antigenic determinant of the HBV known as the determinant “a.” A biomedical innovation in the field of vaccine design has made it possible to produce several types of therapeutic vaccines for patients with HBV infection, namely DNA- and mRNA-based vaccines, vaccines protein/peptide, cell-based vaccines, and nanovaccines, but the degree of curative efficacy differs from one vaccine to another. This chapter elucidates the development strategies of hepatitis B oncovirus vaccines, whether for preventive or curative purposes, and provides an overview of global vaccine coverage against this virus.