Department of Immunology, Vaccine Research Institute of San Diego , San Diego , CA , USA.
VLP Biotech, Inc ., La Jolla , CA , USA.
Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2019;15(9):2187-2191. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2019.1607132. Epub 2019 May 9.
The immune response to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine in newborns of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive or HBeAg-negative mothers is the subject of Huang et al. The authors report no correlation between the HBeAg status of the mothers/cord blood and the newborns immune response to the vaccine, but, unfortunately, draw unfounded conclusions regarding the tolerogenic potential of exposure to HBeAg. In this reply, I address the possible influence of exposure to the HBeAg, and briefly review other characteristics of the HBeAg, that may promote HBV chronicity. I argue that the function of HBeAg should no longer be considered "unknown" and that immunotolerance/immunomodulation represent the dominant functions of the HBeAg in viral-host interactions.
新生儿乙型肝炎病毒 (HBV) 疫苗免疫应答是黄等人研究的主题。作者报告称，母亲/脐血中 HBeAg 状态与新生儿对疫苗的免疫应答之间无相关性，但不幸的是，对接触 HBeAg 的耐受潜力得出了毫无根据的结论。在本回复中，我将讨论接触 HBeAg 的可能影响，并简要回顾 HBeAg 的其他特征，这些特征可能促进 HBV 慢性化。我认为，HBeAg 的功能不应再被认为是“未知”的，免疫耐受/免疫调节是 HBeAg 在病毒-宿主相互作用中的主要功能。
