Differential gene expression in peripheral blood between low viremic inactive carrier and NUC-treated HBV patients irrespective of circulating HBsAg levels.
J Infect Dis 2020;
225:1471-1476. [PMID:
33009569 PMCID:
PMC9016459 DOI:
10.1093/infdis/jiaa614]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Long-term viremia control in chronic HBV patients occurs either spontaneously in inactive carrier (IC) patients or therapy-induced by nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUC). To better understand the characteristics of viremia control, we evaluated gene expression in purified leukocyte subsets from IC versus NUC-treated patients, and evaluated the putative modulatory effects of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). We observed that gene expression in NUC-treated patients differed markedly from IC patients, especially in dendritic cells, monocytes, and CD8+ T cells, while serum HBsAg levels had little effect. Nevertheless, based on our findings it cannot be excluded that HBsAg may act locally in the infected liver or preferentially affects HBV-specific cells.
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