Decline in HBV RNA Indicates Who Loses HBeAg During Antiviral Treatment

— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate

Researchers may have found a simple blood test to determine which patients are going to lose HBeAg during antiviral treatment.

German researchers measured the levels of HBV RNA in 50 patients treated with antivirals and found those who had the greatest RNA declines during antiviral treatment were the most likely to lose HBeAg and develop "e" antibodies, called HBeAg seroconversion.

Unlike HBV DNA, which sits in a cell's nucleus and issues genetic instructions to create more HBV, it is the HBV RNA's job to transfer those instructions from the nucleus to ribosomes so DNA never has to leave the safety of the nucleus.

Increasingly, researchers are looking at HBV RNA to see if they can manipulate these messenger RNA in order to impede HBV reproduction.

In this study, researchers monitored HBV RNA in 50 HBeAg-positive patients treated with antivirals over 30 months. They found the patients who had the greatest decline in HBV RNA after three to six months of treatment were the ones who ultimately lost HBeAg and developed "e" antibodies. When HBeAg seroconversion occurs, viral load and risk of liver damage usually decline.

Researchers noted that HBeAg-negative patients, who had already lost HBeAg, already had low levels of HBV RNA.

Measuring HBV RNA was a more accurate indicator of which patients would lose HBeAg than measuring viral load, the liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or HBsAg levels, researchers concluded in their report published in the August issue of the journal Hepatology.

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25132147

http://www.hbvadvocate.org/news/HBJ11.9.htm

Labels: ,