A creative approach to tackling hepatitis B

The Centenary Institute’s Lawrence Creative Prize 2015 has been awarded to Dr Greg Ebert for the innovation and creativity in his approach to tackling chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The prize celebrates bold young Australian scientists who are prepared to take risks in order to ask and answer the big questions in health.

Dr Ebert’s work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) utilised the clinical-stage drug ‘birinapant’, originally developed by US biotech company TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer. He explained, “We realised that the mechanism by which the drug works could be translated for the treatment of infectious diseases too.”

Rather than targeting HBV directly, Dr Ebert’s approach eradicates infection by promoting the death of infected cells. Through the development of a new therapy, he was able to kill HBV-infected liver cells by initiating a self-destruct signal to the host cells.

“Birinapant causes HBV-infected liver cells to essentially commit suicide, but it does not harm uninfected cells,” Dr Ebert said.

Dr Marc Pellegrini, head of the Infection and Immunity division at WEHI, said preclinical studies showed that the altruistic death of HBV-infected cells removed the reservoir of infection and eliminated the virus. “This is something that has never been achieved before,” Dr Pellegrini said.

Dr Ebert, along with Dr Pellegrini’s lab, is now working on translating this breakthrough to the treatment of other overwhelming chronic infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis. Clinical development of birinapant will meanwhile progress under a collaboration agreement with TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals.

As the winner of the Lawrence Creative Prize 2015, Dr Ebert was awarded a hand-blown glass trophy and $25,000. For more on his work, as well as the other competition finalists, visit https://thinkable.org/competition/12.

Image caption: Dr Greg Ebert.