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Hafezi et al. Hepatoma Res 2020;6:23 Hepatoma Research
DOI: 10.20517/2394-5079.2020.02

Review Open Access

Personalized T-cell therapy in liver transplanted

patients with hepatitis B virus related hepatocellular
carcinoma

Morteza Hafezi , Antonio Bertoletti , Anthony Tan
1
1
1,2
1 Emerging Infectious Diseases Program, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore 169857, Singapore.
2 Singapore Immunology Network, Singapore Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), Singapore 169857, Singapore.

Correspondence to: Prof. Antonio Bertoletti, Emerging Infectious Diseases Program, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road,
Singapore 169857, Singapore. E-mail: antonio@duke-nus.edu.sg

How to cite this article: Hafezi M, Bertoletti A, Tan A. Personalized T-cell therapy in liver transplanted patients with hepatitis B virus
related hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatoma Res 2020;6:23. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-5079.2020.02

Received: 17 Jan 2020 First Decision: 4 Mar 2020 Revised: 18 Mar 2020 Accepted: 24 Mar 2020 Published: 11 May 2020

Science Editors: Jia Fan, Ying-Hong Shi Copy Editor: Jing-Wen Zhang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a deadly malignancy which typically occurs in the context of chronic liver
inflammation. Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered a major global cause of HCC development.
At the moment, liver transplantation is the only curative modality for HBV-associated HCC. However, some
patients develop HBV-HCC recurrence after liver transplantation, leaving them with very limited therapeutic
options. Adoptive cell therapy with HBV-specific T cell receptor (TCR) that redirects T cells against HCC relapses
has shown promising results in such HBV-HCC patients. In this mini-review, we discuss the application of this
personalized T cell therapy, and highlight mRNA electroporation as an efficient tool for engineering safe and
efficient TCR-redirected T cells for the treatment of liver transplant patients with HBV-HCC metastasis.

Keywords: HBV, TCR-T cells, mRNA, HCC metastasis, adoptive cell therapy

INTRODUCTION
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of adult liver cancer and third leading cause
of cancer-related mortality globally. Different etiological factors are involved in the pathogenesis of HCC
[1,2]
and hepatotropic viruses like hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) represent the major cause . In regions with
a high incidence of HBV (i.e., South East Asia, China, and Sub-Saharian Africa), chronic HBV infection
[3]
accounts for 80% of HCC . A peculiar feature of HBV-related HCC is the HBV DNA integration which
© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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