Management of Chronic Hepatitis B patients: HBsAg Kinetics

Abstract

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world. Despite the high global burden of disease, and advances and available treatment options, most people infected with HBV and/or HCV remain unaware of their disease. Understanding
HBsAg loss appears vital to achieving Hepatitis B virus infection cure drug development, optimization of disease detection, and patient management.
We aimed to define the HBs loss rate, describe HBs kinetics, identify factors associated with an HBs decline.
Methods. This retrospective cohort study was conducted using a database, that included 160 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection (treated and control groups). Enrolled patients had a long-term follow-up with several bloods analyzed over time.
Results. Treated patients were older, had higher ALT and AST levels, higher HBV DNA. Serum HBsAg levels were 3,2 ± 0,9 and 3,0 ± 0,9 log IU/ml, HBV DNA levels were 2,6 ± 1,4 and 3,3 ± 1,8 log IU/ml, in treated and untreated patients, respectively.
Inactive HBV carriers treated with pegylated interferon and nucleos(t)ide analogues accelerate the HBsAg decline and rate of HBsAg loss compared to untreated patients.
Conclusion. The kinetics of serum HBsAg decline is more essential in treated patients when compared with untreated ones. This analysis confirms that a better understanding of HBsAg loss is essential for the development of effective drugs for the treatment
of chronic hepatitis B and recommendations for optimizing early diagnosis to reduce the disease burden.