Yuan, Xiaojie and Fu, Ting and Xiao, Lixin and He, Zhen and Ji, Zhaohua and Seery, Samuel and Zhang, Wenhua and Ye, Yancheng and Zhou, Haowei and Kong, Xiangyu and Zhang, Shuyuan and Zhou, Qi and Lin, Yulian and Jia, Wenling and Liang, Chunhui and Tang, Haitao and Wang, Fengmei and Zhang, Weilu and Shao, Zhongjun (2022) Describing immune factors associated with Hepatitis B surface antigen loss: A nested case-control study of a Chinese sample from Wuwei City. Front. Immunol., 13. ISSN 1664-3224
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Background: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss is considered a functional cure for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), however, several factors influence HBsAg loss. Methods: 29 CHB patients who had achieved HBsAg loss, were selected and 58 CHB patients with persistent HBsAg were matched, according to gender and age (+/- 3 years). Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) modelling were performed. Results: Multivariate-adjusted logistic regression, based on stepwise selection, showed that baseline HBsAg levels negatively correlated with HBsAg loss (odds ratio [OR] = 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.98-0.99). Interferon treatment positively related with HBsAg loss (OR = 7.99, 95%CI = 1.62-44.88). After adjusting for age, HBsAg level, ALT level, HBeAg status and interferon treatment, MMP-1 (OR = 0.66, 95%CI = 0.44-0.97), CXCL9 (OR = 0.96, 95%CI = 0.93-0.99) and TNF-R1 (OR = 0.97, 95%CI = 0.94-0.99) baseline levels all negatively correlated with HBsAg loss. Our multivariate-adjusted RCS model showed that baseline CXCL10 was associated with HBsAg loss although the relationship was “U-shaped”. Conclusions: Cytokines such as MMP-1, CXCL9, CXCL10 and TNF-R1 are important factors which influence HBsAg loss. It may be possible to develop a nomogram which intercalates these factors; however, further research should consider immune processes involved in HBsAg loss.