Professor Peter Revell AM                           Dr Laura McCollough

HEPATITIS B – THE FACTS

• Hepatitis B liver is an acute infection causing inflammation of the liver
• 90/95% of adults resolve the infection themselves.
• 90% of infants who contract the infection are affected for life
• Currently, 250 million people globally suffer from Hepatitis B
• 220,000 Australians suffer from Hepatitis B
• 20-30 percent develop cirrhosis which may lead to liver cancer. - over 1m die annually
• Only 1– 2% on treatment are cured as there is no actual therapy and most patients will need lifelong treatment
• The infection replicates through both DNA & RNA viruses (COVID replicates only through RNA)

 A NEW TREATMENT UNDER DEVELOPMENT AT THE DOHERTY INSTITUTE

Laura McCullough hypothesised that a genetic engineering tool known as CRISPR Cas 13B could offer a new antiviral approach targeting multiple aspects of the Hepatitis B replication cycle. This became the focus of her PhD program. Experimental work and testing under laboratory conditions, including testing on mice, has produced promising results. Further work remains to be done, including clinical trials with human subjects but a provisional patent has been taken out and if the treatment lives up to its promise a major improvement will be made to the lives of millions of sufferers. 

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