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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Hepatobiliary Diseases
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1525476
This article is part of the Research Topic Chronic Hepatitis B Management: Current Status and Future Directions View all 11 articles

Coexistent patterns and significance of serum HBV RNA and HBV DNA in patients with treatment-naï ve chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Provisionally accepted
Kunyan Hao Kunyan Hao Ye Fan Ye Fan Yi-Qing Zhang Yi-Qing Zhang Yue-cheng YU Yue-cheng YU *
  • Affiliated Jinling Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aims：To explore the coexistent patterns and assess the significance of serum HBV RNA and traditional virological biomarkers in patients with antiviral treatment-naï ve chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Methods：Serum HBV RNA, HBV DNA, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg) of chronic heptatitis B virus were measured and compared. HBV RNA levels were determined by simultaneous amplification and testing assay. Results: In HBeAg-negative [HBeAg (-)] patients, serum HBV RNA detectable [HBV RNA (+)] rate (33.33%, 14/42) was significantly lower than serum HBV DNA detectable [HBV DNA (+)] rate (95.24%, 40/42; p<0.001), but there was no significant difference in HBeAg-positive [HBeAg (+)] patients (p>0.05). HBV RNA (+) rate (33.33%, 14/42) was lower in HBeAg (-) patients than in HBeAg (+) patients (100%,17/17, p<0.001), while HBV DNA (+) rate (95.24%, 40/42 vs 94.12%, 16/17) had no significant difference(p>0.05). HBV RNA (+) rates had significant difference (p<0.001) among different HBsAg levels (10.00%, 65.00%, 84.21%, p<0.001), while HBV DNA (+) rate had no significant difference (p>0.05). In all the infectors, serum HBV RNA correlated well with HBV DNA(r=0.72, p＜0.001), HBeAg (r=0.68, p＜0.001) and HBsAg(r=0.66, p ＜ 0.001). However, the correlations between HBV RNA and other biomarkers varied in different HBsAg and HBeAg levels. Conclusions: Serum coexistent patterns of HBV RNA and HBV DNA varies with the levels of HBeAg and HBsAg in patients with treatment-naï ve chronic HBV infection, which further imply that serum HBV RNA should be included in the key index panel to accurately evaluate the natural history of HBV infection and effects of antiviral treatment.

    Keywords: HBV RNA, HBV DNA, HBsAg, HBeAg, coexistent patterns, treatment-naï ve HBV infectors

    Received: 09 Nov 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hao, Fan, Zhang and YU. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yue-cheng YU, Affiliated Jinling Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

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