Tune Therapeutics Presents Positive Phase 1b/2a Proof of Concept Data on TUNE-401: a First-in-Class Epigenetic Silencer for Patients with Hepatitis B at EASL 2026
Initial clinical data shows deep and durable antiviral activity, including direct silencing of cccDNA, offering a possible pathway to a finite cure for HBV patients
Tune Therapeutics, a leading epigenome editing company, presented new data today at the European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL) Congress in Barcelona, Spain, demonstrating the first clinical evidence of epigenetic silencing in hepatitis B virus (HBV).
The oral presentation was delivered by Dr. Ed Gane, Professor of Medicine at the University of Auckland and world-renowned authority on HBV. The phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluated the safety and tolerability of TUNE-401 in patients with Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB).
CHB affects more than 240 million people globally, and current therapies rarely achieve a functional cure (≈1 per annum). The key barrier to cure remains the persistence of intranuclear covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) within liver cells that serves as the stable viral reservoir. Both current and investigational therapies have indirect mechanisms of action that do not directly silence cccDNA; therefore, when these regimens are discontinued, the virus almost universally comes back.
