Increased NK Cell Function after Cessation of Long-Term Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Treatment in Chronic Hepatitis B Associates with Liver Damage and HBsAg Loss
Christine L Zimmer Franziska Rinker Christoph Höner zu Siederdissen Michael P Manns Heiner Wedemeyer Markus Cornberg Niklas K Björkström
The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiy097, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy097
Published:
17 February 2018
Article history
Received:
04 August 2017
Abstract
Background
Treatment with nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) efficiently suppress HBV DNA but rarely leads to functional cure of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Following NA cessation, a fraction of HBeAg-negative CHB-patients experience HBsAg loss. Cellular immune responses, including those by natural killer cells, innate lymphocytes known to respond in CHB, explaining the virological events transpiring following NA treatment cessation remain elusive.
Methods
In a single-center prospective trial, 15 HBeAg-negative CHB-patients on long-term NA treatment underwent structured NA cessation and were studied longitudinally. The NK cell compartment was assessed using high-dimensional flow cytometry and correlated with the clinical course.
Results
Unsupervised stochastic neighbor embedding analysis revealed NA treated CHB-patients to have a significantly affected NK cell compartment as compared to controls. Cessation of NA treatment resulted in only minor phenotypic alterations, but it significantly augmented NK cell natural cytotoxicity responses in the CHB-patients. This increased NK cell functionality correlated with ALT flares experienced by the patients and was particularly enhanced in patients experiencing HBsAg seroclearance at long-term follow-up.
Conclusions
Increased NK cell function associates with active hepatitis and HBsAg seroclearance following structured NA cessation. This adds to our knowledge of the immunological events that develop following cessation of NA treatment in CHB. 作者: StephenW 时间: 2018-2-21 12:43
慢性乙型肝炎伴肝损伤和HBsAg丢失的长期核苷类似物治疗停止后NK细胞功能增加
Christine L Zimmer Franziska Rinker ChristophHönerzu Siederdissen Michael P Manns Heiner Wedemeyer Markus Cornberg Niklas KBjörkström
“传染病杂志”，jiy097，https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy097
发布时间：
2018年2月17日
文章历史
收稿日期：
2017年8月4日
Increased NK cell function associates with active hepatitis，and HBsAg seroclearance following structured NA cessation. This adds to our knowledge of the immunological events that develop following cessation of NA treatment in CHB.
