About the Authors

Xia Jiang

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Tatsuo Kanda

kandat-cib@umin.ac.jp

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Shuang Wu

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Shingo Nakamoto

Affiliation Department of Molecular Virology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Takaji Wakita

Affiliation Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Shirasawa

Affiliation Department of Molecular Virology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Osamu Yokosuka

Affiliation Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Competing Interests

Drs. XJ, SW, SN, TW and HS have no conflict of interest to declare. Dr. TK reports receiving lecture fees from Chugai Pharmaceutical, MSD, Tanabe-Mitsubishi, Daiichi-Sankyo, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Prof. OY reports receiving grant support from Chugai Pharmaceutical, Bayer, MSD, Daiichi-Sankyo, Tanabe-Mitsubishi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. These relationships do not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Dr. TK, a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member, is listed as a co-author of the manuscript. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XJ TK. Performed the experiments: XJ TK. Analyzed the data: XJ TK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: XJ TK SW SN TW HS OY. Wrote the paper: XJ TK SW SN TW HS OY.