Effect of pegylated interferon alfa-2a in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B during and 48 weeks after off-treatment follow-up: the limitation of pre-treatment HBsAg load for the seroclearance of HBsAg

Internal and Emergency Medicine (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major public health problem worldwide. The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) alfa-2a treatment for seroclearance of HBs antigen (HBsAg) in HBe antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. This retrospective study investigated 16 HBeAg-negative CHB patients who received Peg-IFN alfa-2a weekly for 48 weeks. Thereafter, the patients were followed-up for 48 weeks after the end of therapy. The following criteria were also used for inclusion: HBV-DNA < 5.0 log copies/mL and without nucleot(s)ide analogs. Four HBsAg-positive cases became HBsAg negative. The HBsAg levels of the 4 patients who achieved HBsAg seroclearance were lower significantly than that of the non-seroclearance group (p = 0.007). The mean HBsAg levels in these 4 cases were 68 IU/mL, while the mean HBsAg levels in the non-seroclearance group were 2,114 IU/mL. The mean HBV-DNA levels in the 4 HBsAg seroclearance cases were 2.8 log copies/mL as compared to 3.6 log copies/mL in HBsAg-non-seroclearance cases (p = 0.01). Cases that are HBeAg negative, with HBV-DNA levels < 5 log copies/mL, and HBsAg titers < 120 IU/mL cases may achieve HBsAg clearance with Peg-IFN therapy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the technical assistants of the Department of Gastroenterology, Kagawa University.

Funding

This research was not directly funded.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology and Neurology, Kagawa University Hospital, Ikenobe Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa, 761-0793, Japan

    Shima Mimura, Koji Fujita, Kei Takuma, Mai Nakahara, Kyoko Oura, Tomoko Tadokoro, Hideki Kobara, Joji Tani, Asahiro Morishita & Tsutomu Masaki

  2. Department of Medical Technology, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Kagawa, Japan

    Takashi Himoto

Authors
  1. Shima Mimura
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  2. Koji Fujita
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  3. Kei Takuma
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  4. Mai Nakahara
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  5. Kyoko Oura
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  6. Tomoko Tadokoro
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  7. Hideki Kobara
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  9. Asahiro Morishita
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  11. Tsutomu Masaki
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Contributions

SM: Conceptualization, formal analysis, writing—original draft. KF: Investigation, methodology. KT: Investigation. MN: Investigation. KO: Investigation. TT: Investigation. HK: Investigation. JT: Investigation. AM: Investigation. TH: Supervision. TM: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration.

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Correspondence to Shima Mimura.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from ethical committee of Kagawa University, Japan.

Human and animal rights statement

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mimura, S., Fujita, K., Takuma, K. et al. Effect of pegylated interferon alfa-2a in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B during and 48 weeks after off-treatment follow-up: the limitation of pre-treatment HBsAg load for the seroclearance of HBsAg. Intern Emerg Med (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-020-02622-7

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Keywords

  • Peg-IFN
  • HBeAg negative
  • Chronic hepatitis B
  • HBsAg