Determination of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lamivudine After Highdoses in Duck Hepatitis B Virus-Infected Pekin Ducks

It is estimated that approximately two billion individuals have been infected with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) at some point in their lives. Of these, over four hundred million develop chronic HBV infection, with persistent HBV DNA and HBV Surface Antigen (HBsAg) in their serum [1]. As a consequence of chronic HBV infection these patients are at high risk of developing cirrhosis, Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), and liver failure resulting in over a million deaths each year [1,2]. The efficacy of current chronic HBV treatments, namely interferon-α and nucleoside analogues, is limited by the high barrier of drug-resistant mutants in addition to the persistence of intranuclear Covalently Closed, Circular Viral DNA (cccDNA), which is responsible for viral relapse as a consequence of treatment withdrawal [3-7].