Respuesta inmune frente a la infección por virus de la hepatitis B
Immune response against hepatitis b infection
Abstract
As soon as the immune system realizes that it has been invaded by a virus, a complex situation is elicited by the encounter of the virus with the immune system. Hepatitis B virus has a particular mode of replication. Upon viral uptake into hepatocytes, the HBV DNA is transported to the nucleus where it is converted into a covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), that can persist in the hepatocyte nucleus for indefinite time. The viral infection will only be detected by the immune system when the virus replicates. In acute infections, the response of the innate and adaptative immune system to HBV can be efficient to induce Viral clearance by a cytolytic dependent and independent antiviral effect via the expression of antiviral cytokines, as Interferons, as well as the induction of B cells producing neutralizing antibodies preventing the spread of the virus and by adaptative inmmunity through T cellas activation. The Hepatitis B virus is not cytopathic, it enters, replicate and leaves the hepatocyte without harming the cell. The necro-inflamatory process is determined by the immune system as it attaks the infected cells in an efort to eliminate the invading agent. The severity of the process depends on the intensity of the immune response that can be inexistent, week, vigorous or very vigorous, determining immunologic tolerance, chronic hepatitis, acute autolimited hepatitis and fulminant hepatic failure.
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