Department of Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.
Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Nagoya City University Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.
J Med Virol. 2024 Jul;96(7):e29816. doi: 10.1002/jmv.29816.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNA and hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) have been reported to reflect the transcriptional activity of covalently closed circular HBV DNA. We retrospectively investigated the proportions of quantifiable serum HBV RNA and immunoassay for total antigen including complex via pretreatment-hepatitis B core-related antigen (iTACT-HBcrAg) in chronic hepatitis B patients negative for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and/or with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance. This study included 246 HBeAg-negative HBV-infected patients, who comprised 13 with liver cirrhosis (LC, the LC group), 118 chronic hepatitis (CH, the CH group), and 115 inactive carriers (IC, the IC group), and 44 patients with HBsAg seroclearance. iTACT-HBcrAg and HBV RNA levels were determined using stored serum samples. Higher proportions of the patients had quantifiable iTACT-HBcrAg than HBV RNA in all groups of HBeAg-negative patients (iTACT-HBcrAg: 84.6%, 90.7%, 35.7%, HBV RNA: 23.1%, 26.3%, 14.8%, for the LC, CH, IC groups). With HBsAg seroclearance (HBsAg <0.05 IU/mL), the proportions of quantifiable samples for HBV RNA were also lower than iTACT-HBcrAg (0% for HBV RNA). Thus, iTACT-HBcrAg was more often detectable than circulating HBV RNA in this study population. Further long-term prospective evaluation of iTACT-HBcrAg is desirable for its utilization in clinical practice.
乙型肝炎病毒 (HBV) RNA 和乙型肝炎核心相关抗原 (HBcrAg) 已被报道可反映共价闭合环状 HBV DNA 的转录活性。我们回顾性调查了乙型肝炎表面抗原 (HBsAg) 血清学清除和/或乙型肝炎 e 抗原 (HBeAg) 阴性的慢性乙型肝炎患者中可定量的血清 HBV RNA 和包含复合物的总抗原免疫测定 (预处理-乙型肝炎核心相关抗原，iTACT-HBcrAg) 的比例。本研究包括 246 名 HBeAg 阴性的 HBV 感染者，其中包括 13 名肝硬化 (LC，LC 组)、118 名慢性乙型肝炎 (CH，CH 组) 和 115 名非活动携带者 (IC，IC 组)，以及 44 名 HBsAg 血清学清除者。使用储存的血清样本测定 iTACT-HBcrAg 和 HBV RNA 水平。在所有 HBeAg 阴性患者组中，可定量的 iTACT-HBcrAg 比例均高于 HBV RNA(iTACT-HBcrAg：84.6%、90.7%、35.7%，HBV RNA：23.1%、26.3%、14.8%，LC、CH、IC 组)。在 HBsAg 血清学清除 (HBsAg<0.05IU/mL) 时，HBV RNA 的可定量样本比例也低于 iTACT-HBcrAg(HBV RNA 为 0%)。因此，在本研究人群中，iTACT-HBcrAg 比循环 HBV RNA 更易检测到。进一步进行 iTACT-HBcrAg 的长期前瞻性评估对于其在临床实践中的应用是可取的。
