ANRS Task Force HBV Cure

Main tasks

• To promote ambitious and innovative research into HBV Cure in France and internationally;
• Leading scientific discussions within the consortium in order to incubate and promote cutting-edge research programmes, combining basic, translational, clinical, social science and public health research;
• Communicate on the Taskforce’s programme and achievements and disseminate knowledge on the HBV Cure theme in order to serve the global perspective of eliminating HBV worldwide.

Activities

1. The HBV Cure working group leads a network of researchers and clinicians whose aim is to give visibility to and discuss the latest international advances in basic and translational research on the HBV virus.
2. Each year, this working group organises an international workshop on the theme of HBV cure, reflecting the ideas identified and prioritised at the annual meetings of the HBV Cure Task Force.
3. HBV treatments – Functional recovery HBV – Basic and translational research HBV.

Leadership

List of members of the ANRS HBV Cure Task Force – 15 December 2025

• Tarik Asselah
• Thomas Baumert
• Anja Bockmann
• Marc Bourlière
• Anders Boyd
• Stéphane Bressanelli
• Sylvain Cardinaud
• Fabrice Carrat
• Hugues de Rocquigny
• Sylvie Deuffic-Burban
• João Rodrigo Diogo Diaz
• David Durantel
• Hélène Fontaine
• Claire Fougerou-Leurent
• Guillaume Giraud
• Jérémie Guedj
• Vincent Leroy
• Massimo Levrero
• Yves Lévy
• Julie Lucifora
• Nicolas Manel
• Jean-Charles Nault
• Christine Neuveut
• Lucia Parlati
• Jean-Michel Pawlotsky
• Andrés Roca Suarez
• Philippe Roingeard
• Caroline Scholtès
• Patrick Soussan
• Hélène Strick-Marchand
• Camille Sureau
• Barbara Testoni
• Vincent Thibault
• Pierre Tonnerre
• Eloi Verrier
• Linda Wittkop
• Mirjam Zeisel
• Fabien Zoulim

ANRS MIE Contacts

Working group news

An estimated 254 million people are infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) worldwide, with 1.2 million new cases of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and 1.1 million deaths each year. Currently, hepatitis B requires life-long treatment, which is rarely curative.

Constant drug procurement can be a problem in resource limited settings, and patient adherence may be challenging. Finite therapeutic strategies aim to restore efficient immune responses in chronically infected patients for functional cures.

Functional immune responses induced by a capsid assembly modulator in chronic Hepatitis B virus infected humanized mice.

In a study funded by ANRS MIE, the Institut Pasteur, Inserm and the European Union, the authors of the article ‘Functional immune responses induced by a capsid assembly modulator in chronic Hepatitis B virus infected humanized mice’ report that an immunocompetent humanised mouse model of chronic HBV, a capsid assembly modulator* (the antiviral GLP-26) reduces viraemia and viral antigens while slowing hepatitis.

After treatment was discontinued, immune control of HBV emerged with a combination of neutralising antibodies and antigen-specific T-cell responses, leading to seroconversion and HBV functional cure.

* These molecules target and distort the HBV capsid, rendering it unable to spread. The virus assembly  is disrupted, which halts HBV proliferation in infected cells.