Serum hepatitis B virus RNA is a predictor of HBeAg seroconversion and virological response with entecavir treatment in chronic hepatitis B patients.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Luo, Hao Zhang, Xia-Xia Cao, Li-Hua Tan, Ning Kang, Qian Xi, Hong-Li Yu, Min Xu, Xiao-Yuan
Copyright Year	2019
Abstract	BACKGROUNDCharacteristics of alterations of serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNA in different chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients still cannot be fully explained. Whether HBV RNA can predict HBeAg seroconversion is still controversial.AIMTo investigate whether HBV RNA can predict virological response or HBeAg seroconversion during entecavir (ETV) treatment when HBV DNA is undetectable.METHODSThe present study evaluated 61 individuals who were diagnosed and treated with long-term ETV monotherapy at the Department of Infectious Diseases of Peking University First Hospital (China) from September 2006 to December 2007. Finally, 30 treatment-naive individuals were included. Serum HBV RNA were extracted from 140 μL serum samples at two time points. Then they were reverse transcribed to cDNA with the HBV-specific primer. The product was quantified by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) using TAMARA probes. Statistical analyses were performed with IBM SPSS 20.0.RESULTSLevel of serum HBV RNA at baseline was 4.15 ± 0.90 log10 copies/mL. HBV RNA levels showed no significant difference between the virological response (VR) and partial VR (PVR) groups at baseline (P = 0.940). Serum HBV RNA significantly decreased among patients who achieved a VR during ETV therapy (P < 0.001). The levels of HBV RNA in both HBeAg-positive patients with seroconversion group and those with no seroconversion increased after 24 wk of treatment. Overall, HBV RNA significantly but mildly correlated to HBsAg (r = 0.265, P = 0.041), and HBV RNA was not correlated to HBV DNA (r = 0.242, P = 0.062). Furthermore, serum HBV RNA was an independent indicator for predicting HBeAg seroconversion and virological response. HBeAg seroconversion was more likely in CHB patients with HBV RNA levels below 4.12 log10 copies/mL before treatment.CONLUSIONThe level of serum HBV RNA could predict HBeAg seroconversion and PVR during treatment. In the PVR group, the level of serum HBV RNA tends to be increasing.
ISSN	10079327
Volume Number	25
PubMed Central reference number	PMC6378541
Issue Number	6
PubMed reference number	30783375
Journal	World Journal of Gastroenterology [World J. Gastroenterol]
e-ISSN	22192840
DOI	10.3748/wjg.v25.i6.719
Language	English
Publisher	Baishideng Publishing Group Inc
Publisher Date	2019-02-01
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Subject Keyword	Chronic hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus RNA Virological response HBeAg seroconversion Entecavir
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Gastroenterology