Cytokine profiles and virological markers highlight distinctive immune statuses, and effectivenesses and limitations of NAs across different courses of chronic HBV infection.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The characteristics of cytokine/chemokine(CK) profiles across different courses of chronic hepatitis B virus infection and the effects of NAs antiviral therapy on cytokine profiles remain unclear. METHODS: This report provides evidence from 383 patients with chronic HBV infection. The Luminex multiple cytokine detection technology was used to detect CK profiles. The predictive power of CKs across course of disease was assessedusing univariate analyses and with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Compared to healthy control (HC), expression levels of interleukin 6 (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-21, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-2 and tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-1 showed a significant increasing trend during chronic HBV infection. IL-23 and IL-33 increased respectively in chronic hepatitis B patients (CHB). interferon (IFN)-gamma and TNF-α changed significantly only in liver cirrhosis (LC) patients. Whereas, myeloid-related markers decreased dramatically in those with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The ROC result suggests that combining IL-6, IL-8, CXCL9 and CXCL13 into a nomogram has closely correlation with HCC during chronic HBV infection. In addition, nucleotide analogues (NAs) antiviral treatments are capable of recoveringnormal liver functions and significantly reducing the viral loads, however, they seem to have a limited effect in changing CKs, especially specific antiviral factors. CONCLUSION: The differential CK and virological markers may serve as potential indicators of distinct immune statuses in chronic HBV infection. They also underscore the varying efficacy and limitations of NAs antiviral therapies. This next step would to break new ground in the optimization of current anti-HBV treatment programs although this requires further research.