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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1539356
This article is part of the Research Topic Development and Application of New Diagnostic Methods in Clinical Diagnosis of Virus-Related Diseases View all articles
A Study on pregenomic RNA and factors in the pregnant and postpartum women with chronic HBV infection based on Real World
Provisionally accepted- 1 The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing, China
- 2 Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
Most studies have focused on mother-to-child transmission and postpartum hepatitis flares. We aimed to evaluate the expression profile of pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) and its associated factors in patients with chronic HBV infection (CHB) during pregnancy and postpartum. A total of 134 pregnant and 100 postpartum CHB patients were enrolled, and serum pgRNA levels were quantified. Significant differences in clinical characteristics were noted between pregnant and postpartum CHB patients, but there was no significant difference in pgRNA levels between the two groups. When HBV DNA and HBV antigen levels were low, the corresponding pgRNA detection rate decreased. pgRNA was positively correlated with DNA and HBV antigens in the pregnant and postpartum CHB patients. In the pregnant group, antiviral treatment was an independent risk factor for pgRNA levels. In the postpartum period, HBeAg levels and antiviral treatment were independent risk factors for pgRNA levels. Considering that patients receiving antiviral treatment often have a high DNA load or HBeAg positivity, the DNA level and HBeAg essentially affect pgRNA levels. pgRNA levels differ between pregnant and postpartum patients, and this difference is of great significance for the diagnosis and management of these particular groups.
Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B, Pregnancy, Postpartum, PgRNA, Infection
Received: 04 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tang, Wu, Zhang, Zhou, Ji, Wu and Wang. 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:
Yandan Wu, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, Jiangsu Province, China
Genju Wang, The Second Hospital of Nanjing, Nanjing, China
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