Current status of the treatment of chronic hepatitis B-related liver fibrosis/cirrhosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) liver fibrosis is the process of liver tissue damage and repair caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and may develop into liver cirrhosis in severe cases, and there are still no specific drugs for the treatment of this disease. This article summarizes the main targets involved in the development and progression of CHB liver fibrosis, such as hepatic stellate cell activation, inflammation, and gut-liver axis, as well as the signal transduction pathways associated with fibrosis, and targeting these targets may have a certain anti-fibrogenic effect. At present, anti-HBV therapy combined with or followed by anti-fibrotic therapy can delay or even reverse liver fibrosis/cirrhosis in some patients; however, the reversal of advanced liver fibrosis/cirrhosis still faces great challenges, and there is still no consensus on the timing of combined or sequential therapy. It is believed that identification of therapeutic targets highly associated with CHB liver fibrosis/cirrhosis and combination therapy with compounds targeting multiple pathways associated with liver fibrosis will become the focus of future research.