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Abstract Details
Quantitative hepatitis B core antibody levels in the natural history of hepatitis B virus infection
Song LW1, Liu PG2, Liu CJ3, Zhang TY1, Cheng XD4, Wu HL3, Yang HC3, Hao XK4, Yuan Q5, Zhang J6, Kao JH3, Chen DS3, Chen PJ7, Xia NS8. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2014 Oct 29. pii: S1198-743X(14)00063-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2014.10.002. [Epub ahead of print]
Author information
1National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen, China.
2Zhongshan Hospital, Medical College of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
3National Taiwan University College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
4Center of Clinical Laboratory Medicine of PLA, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
5National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen, China; School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. Electronic address: yuanquan@xmu.edu.cn.
6National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen, China; School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
7National Taiwan University College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: peijerchen@ntu.edu.tw.
8National Institute of Diagnostics and Vaccine Development in Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen, China; School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China. Electronic address: nsxia@xmu.edu.cn.
Abstract
We previously demonstrated that pretreatment quantitative anti-hepatitis B core protein (qAnti-HBc) levels can predict the treatment response for both interferon and nucleoside analogue therapy, but the characteristics of qAnti-HBc during chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remain poorly understood. To understand this issue, the qAnti-HBc levels were evaluated in individuals with past HBV infection, occult HBV infection and chronic HBV infection in the immune tolerance phase, immune clearance phase, low-replicative phase and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative hepatitis phase. Individuals with hepatitis B surface antigen (n = 598, 3.74 ± 0.90 log10 IU/mL) had significantly higher (p < 0.001, approximately 1000-fold) serum qAnti-HBc levels than those who had occult HBV, and serum qAnti-HBc levels were significantly higher in the occult HBV group than in the past HBV infection group (p < 0.001). qAnti-HBc levels were positively correlated with alanine aminotransferase levels (R = 0.663, p < 0.001), and subjects with an abnormal alanine aminotransferase level had a higher qAnti-HBc level (p < 0.001). Serum qAnti-HBc level varied in different phases of HBV infection, as determined by host immune status. Serum qAnti-HBc level is strongly associated with hepatitis activity in subjects with chronic HBV infection.