The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases

My research interests are the immunobiology and pathogenesis of viral and autoimmune hepatitis. Viral hepatitis B and C belong to the most common forms of liver disease that affects more than 500 million people worldwide. The spectrum of disease ranges from acute to chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The clinical course of disease not only reflects the biologic properties and pathogenicity of these two hepatitis viruses, but is the result of the specific interaction between each virus and the immune system of the infected host. In addition to virus-specific antibodies, T cells are considered key players in the defense against these viruses, because of their ability to recognize viral antigens in and to eliminate virus from infected cells. However, once chronic infection is established, the virus specific immune response seems to be unable to terminate persistent infection in most cases and, instead, contributes to liver injury and chronic hepatitis. Current research focuses on the role of the virus specific immune response in viral clearance as well as disease pathogenesis using multidisciplinary approaches that include research with infected patients, transgenic mice, and infectious animal models.

We are always looking for enthusiastic new investigators to join our group. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me to learn more about our current projects.

Rehermann B, Naoumov NV Immunological techniques in viral hepatitis. J Hepatol (46): 508-20, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

Manigold T, Shin EC, Mizukoshi E, Mihalik K, Murthy KK, Rice CM, Piccirillo CA, Rehermann B Foxp3+CD4+CD25+ T cells control virus-specific memory T cells in chimpanzees that recovered from hepatitis C. Blood (107): 4424-32, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Shiina M, Rehermann B Hepatitis C vaccines: Inducing and challenging memory T cells. Hepatology (43): 1395-8, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Von Hahn T, Yoon JC, Alter H, Rice CM, Rehermann B, Balfe P, McKeating JA Hepatitis C Virus Continuously Escapes From Neutralizing Antibody and T-Cell Responses During Chronic Infection In Vivo. Gastroenterology , 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Caggiari L, Simula MP, Marzotto A, Shiina M, Rehermann B, De Re V Identification of novel chimpanzee MHC class I and II alleles using an improved sequence-based typing strategy. Hum Immunol (67): 63-72, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Shin EC, Rehermann B Taking the brake off T cells in chronic viral infection. Nat Med (12): 276-7, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Racanelli V, Rehermann B The liver as an immunological organ. Hepatology (43): S54-62, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Shin EC, Seifert U, Kato T, Rice CM, Feinstone SM, Kloetzel PM, Rehermann B Virus-induced type I IFN stimulates generation of immunoproteasomes at the site of infection. J Clin Invest (116): 3006-14, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

Heller T, Rehermann B Acute hepatitis C: a multifaceted disease. Semin Liver Dis (25): 7-17, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Ahlenstiel G, Rehermann B Hepatitis C virus and the threshold of natural killer cell inhibition. Hepatology (41): 675-7, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B, Nascimbeni M Immunology of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection. Nat Rev Immunol (5): 215-29, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Shin EC, Protzer U, Untergasser A, Feinstone SM, Rice CM, Hasselschwert D, Rehermann B Liver-directed gamma interferon gene delivery in chronic hepatitis C. J Virol (79): 13412-20, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Shin EC, Protzer U, Untergasser A, Feinstone SM, Rice CM, Hasselschwert D, Rehermann B Liver-directed gamma interferon gene delivery in chronic hepatitis C. J Virol (79): 13412-20, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Vandepapeliere P, Rehermann B, Koutsoukos M, Moris P, Garcon N, Wettendorff M, Leroux-Roels G Potent enhancement of cellular and humoral immune responses against recombinant hepatitis B antigens using AS02A adjuvant in healthy adults. Vaccine (23): 2591-601, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Vandepapeliere P, Rehermann B, Koutsoukos M, Moris P, Garcon N, Wettendorff M, Leroux-Roels G Potent enhancement of cellular and humoral immune responses against recombinant hepatitis B antigens using AS02A adjuvant in healthy adults. Vaccine (23): 2591-2601, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B, Shin EC Private aspects of heterologous immunity. J Exp Med (201): 667-70, 2005. [Full Text/Abstract]

Mizukoshi E, Sidney J, Livingston B, Ghany M, Hoofnagle JH, Sette A, Rehermann B Cellular immune responses to the hepatitis B virus polymerase. J Immunol (173): 5863-71, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Racanelli V Behrens SE Aliberti J Rehermann B Dendritic cells transfected with cytopathic self-replicating RNA induce crosspriming of CD8+ T cells and antiviral immunity. Immunity (20): 47-58, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Nascimbeni M Rehermann B Determination of hepatitis B virus-specific CD8+ T-cell activity in the liver. Methods Mol Med (96): 65-83, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rahman F Heller T Sobao Y Mizukoshi E Nascimbeni M Alter H Herrine S Hoofnagle J Liang TJ Rehermann B Effects of antiviral therapy on the cellular immune response in acute hepatitis C. Hepatology (40): 87-97, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rahman F Rehermann B Ethnicity and hepatitis C virus infection. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol (2): 456-8, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Seifert U Liermann H Racanelli V Halenius A Wiese M Wedemeyer H Ruppert T Rispeter K Henklein P Sijts A Hengel H Kloetzel PM Rehermann B Hepatitis C virus mutation affects proteasomal epitope processing. J Clin Invest (114): 250-9, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Jeong SH Qiao M Nascimbeni M Hu Z Rehermann B Murthy K Liang TJ Immunization with hepatitis C virus-like particles induces humoral and cellular immune responses in nonhuman primates. J Virol (78): 6995-7003, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Nascimbeni M Shin EC Chiriboga L Kleiner DE Rehermann B Peripheral CD4(+)CD8(+) T cells are differentiated effector memory cells with antiviral functions. Blood (104): 478-86, 2004. [Full Text/Abstract]

Nascimbeni M Rehermann B Chronic HCV infection and the clonality of intrahepatic T cells. J Hepatol (38): 677-80, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Manigold T Rehermann B Chronic hepatitis B and hepatocarcinogenesis: does prevention of "collateral damage" bring the cure? Hepatology (37): 707-10, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Racanelli V Rehermann B Hepatitis C virus infection: when silence is deception. Trends Immunol (24): 456-64, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B Immune responses in hepatitis B virus infection. Semin Liver Dis (23): 21-38, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Nascimbeni M Mizukoshi E Bosmann M Major ME Mihalik K Rice CM Feinstone SM Rehermann B Kinetics of CD4+ and CD8+ memory T-cell responses during hepatitis C virus rechallenge of previously recovered chimpanzees. J Virol (77): 4781-93, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Thomson M Nascimbeni M Havert MB Major M Gonzales S Alter H Feinstone SM Murthy KK Rehermann B Liang TJ The clearance of hepatitis C virus infection in chimpanzees may not necessarily correlate with the appearance of acquired immunity. J Virol (77): 862-70, 2003. [Full Text/Abstract]

Wedemeyer H He XS Nascimbeni M Davis AR Greenberg HB Hoofnagle JH Liang TJ Alter H Rehermann B Impaired effector function of hepatitis C virus-specific CD8+ T cells in chronic hepatitis C virus infection. J Immunol (169): 3447-58, 2002. [Full Text/Abstract]

Mizukoshi E Nascimbeni M Blaustein JB Mihalik K Rice CM Liang TJ Feinstone SM Rehermann B Molecular and immunological significance of chimpanzee major histocompatibility complex haplotypes for hepatitis C virus immune response and vaccination studies. J Virol (76): 6093-103, 2002. [Full Text/Abstract]

Major ME Mihalik K Puig M Rehermann B Nascimbeni M Rice CM Feinstone SM Previously infected and recovered chimpanzees exhibit rapid responses that control hepatitis C virus replication upon rechallenge. J Virol (76): 6586-95, 2002. [Full Text/Abstract]

Wedemeyer H Mizukoshi E Davis AR Bennink JR Rehermann B Cross-reactivity between hepatitis C virus and Influenza A virus determinant-specific cytotoxic T cells. J Virol (75): 11392-400, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Wedemeyer H Mizukoshi E Davis AR Bennink JR Rehermann B Cross-reactivity between hepatitis C virus and Influenza A virus determinant-specific cytotoxic T cells. J Virol (75): 11392-400, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

He XS Rehermann B Boisvert J Mumm J Maecker HT Roederer M Wright TL Maino VC Davis MM Greenberg HB Direct functional analysis of epitope-specific CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood. Viral Immunol (14): 59-69, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Thomson M Nascimbeni M Gonzales S Murthy KK Rehermann B Liang TJ Emergence of a distinct pattern of viral mutations in chimpanzees infected with a homogeneous inoculum of hepatitis C virus. Gastroenterology (121): 1226-33, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Satoi J Murata K Lechmann M Manickan E Zhang Z Wedemeyer H Rehermann B Liang TJ Genetic immunization of wild-type and hepatitis C virus transgenic mice reveals a hierarchy of cellular immune response and tolerance induction against hepatitis C virus structural proteins. J Virol (75): 12121-7, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Mizukoshi E Rehermann B Immune responses and immunity in hepatitis C virus infection. J Gastroenterol (36): 799-808, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Neuman MG Brenner DA Rehermann B Taieb J Chollet-Martin S Cohard M Garaud JJ Poynard T Katz GG Cameron RG Shear NH Gao B Takamatsu M Yamauchi M Ohata M Saito S Maeyama S Uchikoshi T Toda G Kumagi T Akbar SM Abe M Michitaka K Horiike N Onji M Mechanisms of alcoholic liver disease: cytokines. Alcohol Clin Exp Res (25): 251S-253S, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Wedemeyer H Gagneten S Davis A Bartenschlager R Feinstone S Rehermann B Oral immunization with HCV-NS3-transformed Salmonella: induction of HCV-specific CTL in a transgenic mouse model. Gastroenterology (121): 1158-66, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Wedemeyer H Gagneten S Davis A Bartenschlager R Feinstone S Rehermann B Oral immunization with HCV-NS3-transformed Salmonella: induction of HCV-specific CTL in a transgenic mouse model. Gastroenterology (121): 1158-66, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B Chisari FV Cell mediated immune response to the hepatitis C virus. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol (242): 299-325, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Takaki A Wiese M Maertens G Depla E Seifert U Liebetrau A Miller JL Manns MP Rehermann B Cellular immune responses persist and humoral responses decrease two decades after recovery from a single-source outbreak of hepatitis C. Nat Med (6): 578-82, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Takaki A Wiese M Maertens G Depla E Seifert U Liebetrau A Miller JL Manns MP Rehermann B Cellular immune responses persist and humoral responses decrease two decades after recovery from a single-source outbreak of hepatitis C. Nat Med (6): 578-82, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Sijts AJ Ruppert T Rehermann B Schmidt M Koszinowski U Kloetzel PM Efficient generation of a hepatitis B virus cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitope requires the structural features of immunoproteasomes. J Exp Med (191): 503-14, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B Interaction between the hepatitis C virus and the immune system. Semin Liver Dis (20): 127-41, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B Intrahepatic T cells in hepatitis B: viral control versus liver cell injury. J Exp Med (191): 1263-8, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Rehermann B Intrahepatic T cells in hepatitis B: viral control versus liver cell injury. J Exp Med (191): 1263-8, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

Liang TJ Rehermann B Seeff LB Hoofnagle JH Pathogenesis, natural history, treatment, and prevention of hepatitis C. Ann Intern Med (132): 296-305, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]