Marianna Di Scala, researcher at training of laboratory Gene therapy in viral hepatitis, has obtained the award for the best poster of research presented at the congress of the association Spanish Society for the Study of the Liver

The communication, "Breakdown of tolerance to viral antigens in a hepatitis B virus (HBV) transgenic mouse model ", presents the development of a new treatment for chronic hepatitis B, based on cytokine gene transfer to the liver. As Marianna Di Scala explains, "Patients with chronic HBV infection are tolerant to viral antigens. In these patients, elimination of the infectious agent requires treatments capable of inducing a vigorous immune response against viral antigens. In this study we propose a new strategy based on gene transfer to the liver of the immunostimulatory cytokines interleukin-15 and interferon-alpha. The combined administration of these cytokines is able to break the tolerance to viral antigens in a model mouse transgenic for chronic hepatitis B and eliminate viral infection".