High normal alanine aminotransferase is an indicator for better response to antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B.

Background: Evidence shows people living with CHB even with a normal ALT (40U/L as threshold) suffer histological disease and there is still little research to evaluate the potential benefit of antiviral benefits in them. Methods: We retrospectively examined 1352 patients who underwent liver biopsy from 2017 to 2021 and then obtained their 1-year follow-up data to analyze. Results: ALT levels were categorized into high and low, with thresholds set at >29 for males and >15 for females through Youden's Index. The high normal ALT group showed significant histological disease at baseline (56.43% vs 43.82%, p< 0.001), and better HBV DNA clearance from treatment using PSM (p=0.005). Similar results were obtained using 2016 AASLD high normals (male >30, female >19). Further multivariate logistic analysis showed that high normal ALT (both criterias) was an independent predictor of treatment (OR 1.993, 95% CI 1.115-3.560, p=0.020; OR 2.000, 95% CI 1.055-3.793, p=0.034) Both of the models had higher AUC compared with current scoring system, and there was no obvious difference between the two models (AUC:0.8840 vs 0.8835). Conclusion: Male >30 or female >19 and Male >29 or female>15 are suggested to be better thresholds for normal ALT. Having a high normal ALT in CHB provides a potential benefit in antiviral therapy.

The investigation of the interaction between ribavirin and bovine serum albumin by spectroscopic methods.

The interaction between ribavirin (RIB) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been investigated by fluorescence quenching technique in combination with UV-vis absorption and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies under the simulative physiological conditions. The quenching of BSA fluorescence by RIB was found to be a result of the formation of RIB-BSA complex. The binding constants and the number of binding sites were calculated at three different temperatures. The values of thermodynamic parameters ∆H, ∆S, ∆G at different temperatures indicate that hydrophobic and hydrogen bonds played important roles for RIB-BSA association. The binding distance r was obtained according to the theory of Förster's non-radiation energy transfer. The displacement experiments was performed for identifying the location of the binding site of RIB on BSA. The effects of common ions on the binding constant of RIB and BSA were also examined. Finally, the conformational changes of BSA in the presence of RIB were also analyzed by CD spectra and Synchronous fluorescence spectra.

[Study of autofluorescence spectra of protoporphyrin IX in human serum].

The fluorescence spectra of protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) solutions and human serum samples were measured and analyzed under physiological conditions. The experimental results showed that the fluorescence of PPIX in human serum was mainly derived from PPIX-serum albumin complex. Moreover, the effects of serum albumin and PPIX on the PPIX emission fluorescence were also investigated. Compared with pure PPIX solution, not only a red-shift of PPIX fluorescence peak was found for PPIX+albumin solution, but also albumin had a fluorescence enhancement effect on protoporphyrin IX. For the mixture of PPIX+albumin, with the increase of PPIX the wavelength of the PPIX emission peak will increased a little when its concentration was less than 0.8 x 10(-5) mol x L(-1), but was nearly invariable when its concentration was more than 0.8 x 10(-5) mol x L(-1).