Chronic hepatitis B infection is a major public health challenge. With the advancement in technology, various components of the viral cycle can now be measured in the blood to assess viral activity. In this review article, we summarize the relevant data of how antiviral therapies impact viral biomarkers, and discuss their potential implications. Viral nucleic acids including hepatitis B virus (HBV) double-stranded deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA) and to a lesser extent, pre-genomic RNA, are readily suppressed by nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUCs). The primary role of these markers include risk prediction for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and risk stratification for partial cure, defined as off-therapy virological control, or functional cure, defined as hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance plus undetectable serum HBV DNA for ≥6 months. Viral translational products including hepatitis e antigen, quantitative HBsAg and hepatitis B core-related antigen can be reduced by NUCs and pegylated interferon a. They are important in defining disease phase, delineating treatment endpoints, and predicting clinical outcomes including HCC risk and partial/ functional cure. As the primary outcome of phase III trials in chronic hepatitis B is set as HBsAg seroclearance, appropriate viral biomarkers can potentially inform the efficacy of novel compounds. Early viral biomarker response can help with prioritization of subjects into clinical trials. However, standardization and validation studies would be crucial before viral biomarkers can be broadly implemented in clinical use.
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Background/Aims We investigated the dynamics of serum HBV pre-genomic RNA (pgRNA) and hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) in patients receiving nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) and their predictability for favourable suppression of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).
Methods Serum viral biomarkers were measured at baseline, weeks 4, 12, 24, 36, and 48 of treatment. Patients were followed up thereafter and serum HBsAg level was measured at end of follow-up (EOFU). Favourable HBsAg response (FHR) was defined as ≤100 IU/mL or HBsAg seroclearance upon EOFU.
Results Twenty-eight hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 36 HBeAg-negative patients (median, 38.2 years old; 71.9% male) were recruited with median follow-up duration of 17.1 years (interquartile range, 12.8–18.2). For the entire cohort, 22/64 (34.4%) achieved FHR. For HBeAg-positive patients, serum HBV pgRNA decline at week 4 was significantly greater for patients with FHR compared to non-FHR (5.49 vs. 4.32 log copies/mL, respectively; P=0.016). The area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUROC) for week 4 HBV pgRNA reduction to predict FHR in HBeAg-positive patients was 0.825 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.661–0.989). For HBeAg-negative patients, instead of increase in serum HBcrAg in non-FHR patients, FHR patients had median reduction in HBcrAg at week 4 (increment of 1.75 vs. reduction of 2.98 log U/mL; P=0.023). The AUROC for week 4 change of HBcrAg to predict FHR in HBeAg-negative patients was 0.789 (95% CI, 0.596–0.982).
Conclusions Early on-treatment changes of serum HBV pgRNA and HBcrAg at 4 weeks predict HBsAg seroclearance or ≤100 IU/mL in NA-treated CHB patients upon long-term FU.
Factors associated with low hepatitis B surface antigen levels in chronic hepatitis B patients treated with nucleot(s)ide analogs Takanori Suzuki, Kentaro Matsuura, Takako Inoue, Hayato Kawamura, Kei Fujiwara, Hiromi Kataoka, Yasuhito Tanaka Hepatology Research.2025; 55(3): 309. CrossRef
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Serum O-glycosylated HBsAg levels correlate with HBV RNA in HBeAg positive CHB patients during antiviral therapy Bilian Yao, Qi Xu, Yousuke Yamada, Kiyohiko Angata, Yan Zhang, Hisashi Narimatsu, Demin Yu, Xinxin Zhang Antiviral Research.2025; 234: 106077. CrossRef
Longitudinal profile of plasma pregenomic RNA in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection on long-term nucleoside analogues and its interaction with clinical parameters Lung-Yi Mak, Mark Anderson, Michael Stec, Matthew Shing-Hin Chung, Danny Ka-Ho Wong, Rex Wan-Hin Hui, Wai-Kay Seto, Gavin Cloherty, Man-Fung Yuen Clinical and Molecular Hepatology.2025; 31(2): 460. CrossRef
HBcrAg Dynamic Change During Treatment Predicts HBsAg Loss in Pediatric Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Ling Ye, Wenxian Ouyang, Yingping Gu, Zhenzhen Yao, Xin Lai, Sisi Li, Meng Yang, Songxu Peng Journal of Medical Virology.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
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Background/Aims Data of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine immunogenicity among chronic liver disease (CLD) and liver transplant (LT) patients are conflicting. We performed meta-analysis to examine vaccine immunogenicity regarding etiology, cirrhosis status, vaccine platform and type of antibody.
Methods We collected data via three databases from inception to February 16, 2022, and reported pooled seroconversion rate, T cell response and safety data after two vaccine doses.
Results Twenty-eight (CLD only: 5; LT only: 18; both: 2; LT with third dose: 3) observational studies of 3,945 patients were included. For CLD patients, seroconversion rate ranged between 84% (95% confidence interval [CI], 76–90%) and 91% (95% CI, 83–95%), based predominantly on neutralizing antibody and anti-spike antibody, respectively. Seroconversion rate was 81% (95% CI, 76–86%) in chronic hepatitis B, 96% (95% CI, 93–97%) in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, 85% (95% CI, 75–91%) in cirrhosis and 85% (95% CI, 78–90%) in non-cirrhosis, 86% (95% CI, 78–92%) for inactivated vaccine and 89% (95% CI, 71–96%) for mRNA vaccine. The pooled seroconversion rate of anti-spike antibody was 66% (95% CI, 55–75%) after two doses of mRNA vaccines and 88% (95% CI, 58–98%) after third dose among LT recipients. T cell response rate was 65% (95% CI, 30–89%). Prevalence of adverse events was 27% (95% CI, 18–38%) and 63% (95% CI, 39–82%) among CLD and LT groups, respectively.
Conclusions CLD patients had good humoral response to COVID-19 vaccine, while LT recipients had lower response.
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Background/Aims Studies of hepatic steatosis (HS) effect on COVID-19 vaccine immunogenicity are lacking. We aimed to compare immunogenicity of BNT162b2 and CoronaVac among moderate/severe HS and control subjects.
Methods Two hundred ninety-five subjects who received BNT162b2 or CoronaVac vaccines from five vaccination centers were categorized into moderate/severe HS (controlled attenuation parameter ≥268 dB/m on transient elastography) (n=74) or control (n=221) groups. Primary outcomes were seroconversion rates of neutralising antibody by live virus Microneutralization (vMN) assay (titer ≥10) at day21 (BNT162b2) or day28 (CoronaVac) and day56 (both). Secondary outcome was highest-tier titer response (top 25% of vMN titer; cutoff: 160 [BNT162b2] and 20 [CoronaVac]) at day 56.
Results For BNT162b2 (n=228, 77.3%), there was no statistical differences in seroconversion rates (day21: 71.7% vs. 76.6%; day56: 100% vs. 100%) or vMN geometric mean titer (GMT) (day21: 13.2 vs. 13.3; day56: 91.9 vs. 101.4) among moderate/severe HS and control groups respectively. However, lower proportion of moderate/severe HS patients had highest-tier response (day56: 5.0% vs. 15.5%; P=0.037). For CoronaVac (n=67, 22.7%), there was no statistical differences in seroconversion rates (day21: 7.1% vs. 15.1%; day56: 64.3% vs. 83.0%) or vMN GMT (5.3 vs. 5.8,) at day28. However, moderate/severe HS patients had lower vMN GMT (9.1 vs. 14.8, P=0.021) at day 56 with lower proportion having highest-tier response (21.4% vs. 52.8%, P=0.036).
Conclusions While there was no difference in seroconversion rate between moderate/severe HS and control groups after two doses of vaccine, a lower proportion of moderate/severe HS patients achieved highest-tier response for either BNT162b2 or CoronaVac.
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