(Nature) – The technique uses chemical tags to shut down viral DNA lurking in a host’s genome.

A wave of epigenetic therapies is offering hope for new ways to treat chronic hepatitis B — a lingering liver infection that is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and affects more than 250 million people around the world. Currently available drugs often fail to eradicate the virus from the body.

Gene-editing therapies — which make cuts to DNA strands — have been explored but they can increase cancer risks for people with hepatitis B. Researchers are turning instead to epigenetic editing, which modifies markers attached to the DNA to alter how genes are turned on and off. (Read More)