ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo predict whether antiviral therapy is required in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus （HBV） infection and an age of ≤30 years by establishing a noninvasive model， and to investigate the diagnostic value of this model. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 175 patients with chronic HBV infection who were admitted to Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital from January 2017 to January 2023 and met the inclusion criteria， and according to the results of liver biopsy， they were divided into treatment group with 41 patients （with indications for antiviral therapy） and observation group with 134 patients （without indications for antiviral therapy）. The two groups were analyzed in terms of the indicators including clinical data， imaging examinations， and serum biochemical parameters. The univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the parameters affecting the indication for antiviral therapy， and different models for predicting the need for antiviral therapy were constructed based on related parameters. The receiver operating characteristic （ROC） curve was used to compare the diagnostic value of different models. The independent-samples t test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous variables between groups， and the Mann-Whitney U rank sum test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous variables between groups； the chi-square test or the Fisher’s exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. ResultsThere were significant differences between the treatment group and the observation group in alanine aminotransferase， ferritin， total cholesterol （CHOL）， triglyceride， platelet count， liver stiffness measured by sound touch elastography （STE）， and procollagen III N-terminal propeptide （PIIIP） （all P<0.05）. The multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that CHOL （odds ratio ［OR］=0.4， 95% confidence interval ［CI］： 0.2 — 1.0）， STE （OR=1.5， 95%CI： 1.0 — 2.1）， and PIIIP （OR=1.1， 95%CI： 1.0 — 1.1） were independent predictive factors for the indications for antiviral therapy. Model 1 （STE+PIIIP+CHOL）， model 2 （STE+PIIIP）， model 3 （STE+CHOL）， model 4 （PIIIP+CHOL） had an area under the ROC curve of 0.908， 0.848， 0.725， and 0.725， respectively， while STE， PIIIP， and CHOL used alone had an AUC of 0.836， 0.725， and 0.634， respectively， suggesting that model 1 had the largest AUC， with a specificity of 77.34% and a sensitivity of 96.36%， and had a significant difference compared with STE， PIIIP， CHOL， and the models 2， 3， and 4 （Z=0.21， 3.08， 3.06， 3.23， 0.89， and 0.88， all P<0.05）. ConclusionThe noninvasive model established based on CHOL， STE， and PIIIP has a good value in predicting the need for antiviral therapy in patients with chronic HBV infection and an age of ≤30 years.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has accounted for more than five million infections and hundreds of thousand deaths worldwide in the past six months. The patients demonstrate a great diversity in clinical and laboratory manifestations and disease severity. Nonetheless, little is known about the host genetic contribution to the observed inter-individual phenotypic variability. Here, we report the first host genetic study in China by deeply sequencing and analyzing 332 COVID-19 patients categorized by varying levels of severity from the Shenzhen Third Peoples Hospital. Upon a total of 22.2 million genetic variants, we conducted both single-variant and gene-based association tests among five severity groups including asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe and critical ill patients after the correction of potential confounding factors. The most significant gene locus associated with severity is located in TMEM189-UBE2V1 involved in the IL-1 signaling pathway. The p.Val197Met missense variant that affects the stability of the TMPRSS2 protein displays a decreasing allele frequency among the severe patients compared to the mild and the general population. We also identified that the HLA-A*11:01, B*51:01 and C*14:02 alleles significantly predispose the worst outcome of the patients. This initial study of Chinese patients provides a comprehensive view of the genetic difference among the COVID-19 patient groups and highlighted genes and variants that may help guide targeted efforts in containing the outbreak. Limitations and advantages of the study were also reviewed to guide future international efforts on elucidating the genetic architecture of host-pathogen interaction for COVID-19 and other infectious and complex diseases.