Antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis B.

Treatment of chronic hepatitis B remains a clinical challenge. Long-term viral suppression is a major goal of antiviral therapy to improve the clinical outcome of the patients. Antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis B relies currently on immune modulators such as interferon alpha and its pegylated form, and viral polymerase inhibitors. Because of the slow kinetics of viral clearance and the spontaneous viral genome variability, viral mutants resistant to nucleoside analogs may be selected. However, the development of new antiviral agents is rapidly improving the offing of therapy of chronic hepatitis B. These new therapeutic advances are reviewed in this manuscript.