Hepatitis E

Background

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection, the most common form of viral hepatitis, is a major health problem worldwide. There are two main epidemiological forms of predominantly enterically transmitted HEV infection that correlate with geographically predominant HEV genotypes. In resource-limited countries, the endemic and epidemic HEV genotypes (gt) 1 and 2 are mainly transmitted from person to person through contaminated drinking water. In resource-rich countries, zoonotic HEV gt 3 and 4 infections dominate and are mostly transmitted through contaminated meat products. Despite its high prevalence in industrialized countries, hepatitis E has been underestimated and misdiagnosed for decades, not least because of the highly variable clinical presentation of the HEV gt 3 infection.

Goal

Especially considering that hepatitis E is such a common form of hepatitis globally, comparatively little is known about the localization of the virus in tissues of HEV-infected humans. We aim to learn more about the life cycle of the virus and its interaction with the host by analyzing experimental systems and tissues from HEV infected individuals (Lenggenhager et al., 2017). From this knowledge, we hope to derive tools for a more targeted histopathologic diagnosis of HEV infection, which we expect will lead to better healthcare for hepatitis E patients (Lenggenhager et al., 2020).

Ongoing project and future work

We aim to expand our work on the development of methods to visualize HEV RNA and proteins in cells and tissues of HEV infected individuals. We are trying to further systematically record the subcellular distribution of the virus RNA and protein in the infected liver cells as well as hepatitis E induced histopathologic changes, whereby the role of host factors such as the immune status of the infected individuals are of particular interest to us.

Selected publications

Protzer U, Böhm B, Longerich T et al. (2015). Molecular detection of hepatitis E-virus (HEV) in liver biopsies after liver transplantation. Modern Pathology 28(4):523-32

Chijioke O, Bawohl M, Springer E, Weber A (2015). Hepatitis E Virus Detection in Liver Tissue from Patients with Suspected Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Frontiers in Medicine, Section Pathology 2:20. doi: 10.3389.

Lenggenhager D*, Gouttenoire J*, Malehmir M et al. (2017). Visualization of hepatitis E virus RNA and proteins in the human liver. Journal of Hepatology 67(3):471-479.

Lenggenhager D, Pawel S, Honcharova-Biletska H et al. (2021). The histologic presentation of hepatitis E reflects patients' immune status and pre-existing liver condition. Modern Pathology 34(1):233-248.