Objective
Despite effective vaccines, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major health problem with 2 billion people infected worldwide. Among them, 350 million are chronically infected, a major risk factor for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A new and efficient treatment against chronic infection and HCC is strongly needed, and therefore it is important to understand HBV replication and persistence. In the absence of a good model, woodchuck infection with woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) is used as the preferred system to study disease and by homology, HBV nature. In the present proposal we intent to establish a robust WHV reverse genetic system to study the virus replication and pathogenesis. By utilizing this WHV reverse genetic system, we plan to introduce two new strategies to generate virus-attenuated vaccines that could infect and interfere with wild type virus replication. WHV core is a structural protein required for virus replication and growth. We are proposing to construct a core deficient recombinant WHV that could replicate in wild type WHV infected cells, interfering with wild type infection. A second strategy focuses on Hepatitis B virus X (HBx) and woodchuck hepatitis virus X (WHx) multifunctional proteins, which are required for optimal HBV and WHV replication and development of WHV derived HCC. We propose to create recombinant WHV with a mutant WHx protein that will interfere with full-length protein activities if they are co-expressed. As an initial approach to study virus replication, we will utilize woodchuck hepatocyte xenograft transplants in RAG-1 transgenic mice. Finally, woodchuck animal model will be challenged to test the efficacy of recombinant viruses replication and interference with chronic infection and suppress HBV derived HCC. Our ultimate goal is to develop novel effective molecular therapeutic tools that could be combined with other HBV/WHV antiviral strategies to suppress chronic HBV infection and HBV derived HCC.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
31008 Pamplona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.