Serum Hepatitis B Core-related Antigen is a Satisfactory Surrogate Marker of Intrahepatic Covalently Closed Circular DNA in Chronic Hepatitis B

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Mar 12

PMID 28282964

Citations 38

Authors

En-Qiang Chen

Shu Feng

Meng-Lan Wang

Ling-Bo Liang

Ling-Yun Zhou

Ling-Yao Du

Li-Bo Yan

Chuan-Min Tao

Hong Tang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Recently, hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) has been suggested as an additional marker of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. This study aimed to investigate whether serum quantitative HBcrAg (qHBcrAg) was a satisfactory surrogate marker of intrahepatic covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). A total of 139 patients with liver biopsy were enrolled, consisting of 59 patients in immune tolerance (IT) phase, 52 patients in immune clearance (IC) phase, 18 patients in low-replication (LR) phase, and 10 patients in reactivation phase. All patients in IC phase have received entecavir (ETV) therapy, and 32 of them undergone a second liver biopsy at 24 months. Among those patients, qHBcrAg was strongly correlated with intrahepatic cccDNA, which is superior to that of qHBsAg and HBV DNA. And similar findings were also observed in patients in IT, IC, LR and reactivation phases. Among the 32 ETV-treated patients with a second liver biopsy in IC phase, the decline of intrahepatic cccDNA was accompanied by changes in both qHBcrAg and qHBsAg. However, as compared to qHBsAg, the change of qHBcrAg was more strongly associated with intrahepatic cccDNA-decline. In summary, serum qHBcrAg should be a satisfactory surrogate of intrahepatic HBV cccDNA in CHB patients.

Citing Articles

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