Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Jul 12;16(7):1121.
doi: 10.3390/v16071121.

Quantitative HBV Core Antibodies as a Prognostic Marker for HBeAg Seroclearance: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Ivana Lazarevic  1 , Danijela Miljanovic  1 , Ana Banko  1 , Maja Cupic  1 , Andja Cirkovic  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Quantitative HBV Core Antibodies as a Prognostic Marker for HBeAg Seroclearance: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Ivana Lazarevic et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

During chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, the seroclearance of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) is an important event and a significant surrogate endpoint of all current therapeutic strategies. The prediction of HBeAg seroclearance can help assess the benefits of therapy in patients during or before therapy initiation. The quantitation of HBV core antibodies (qAnti-HBc) is a new non-invasive biomarker for solving multiple diagnostic dilemmas. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that measured qAnti-HBc in patients who achieved HBeAg seroclearance were performed through PubMed, Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS electronic database searches. Nineteen articles were included in the systematic review, comprising 3434 chronically infected patients (1014 with and 2420 without HBeAg seroclearance). Sixteen publications with data regarding qAnti-HBc levels were included in the meta-analysis. The baseline level of qAnti-HBc antibodies was significantly higher in patients with than without HBeAg seroclearance (SMD = 0.88, 95%CI SMD = 0.56-1.2, p < 0.001). The same conclusion was reached for patients originating from Asia (SMD = 0.94, 95%CI SMD = 0.55-1.33) and for the qAnti-HBc antibodies among adult HBV patients with therapy-induced HBeAg seroclearance (SMD = 0.90, 95%CI SMD = 0.54-1.25, p < 0.001). The systematic review and meta-analysis provide evidence of the role of qAnti-HBc as a promising biomarker for predicting HBeAg seroclearance in chronically infected patients.

Keywords: HBV core antibody; HBeAg seroclearance; hepatitis B virus (HBV); qAnti-HBc; quantitation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flow chart represents the search strategy and study selection for the systematic review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Meta-analysis of the differences in the baseline level of the quantitation of HBV core antibodies (qAnti-HBc) antibodies between HBV patients with and without hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroclearance [8,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,27,29,30,31,34].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Meta-analysis of the differences in the level of qAnti-HBc antibodies between HBV patients originating from Asia with and without HBeAg seroclearance [8,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,27,29,30,31].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Meta-analysis of the differences in the level of total qAnti-HBc antibodies between adult HBV patients with and without therapy-induced HBeAg seroclearance [8,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,25,27,29,30,31,34].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Meta-analysis of the differences in the level of qAnti-HBc antibodies between adult HBV patients originating from Asia with and without therapy-induced HBeAg seroclearance [8,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,27,29,30,31].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO Sounds Alarm on Viral Hepatitis Infections Claiming 3500 Lives Each Day. [(accessed on 14 May 2024)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/news/item/09-04-2024-who-sounds-alarm-on-viral-hepat....
    1. Lampertico P., Agarwal K., Berg T., Buti M., Janssen H.L.A., Papatheodoridis G., Zoulim F., Tacke F. EASL 2017 Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management of Hepatitis B Virus Infection. J. Hepatol. 2017;67:370–398. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2017.03.021. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Papatheodoridi M., Papatheodoridis G. Can We Stop Nucleoside Analogues before HBsAg Loss? J. Viral Hepat. 2019;26:936–941. doi: 10.1111/jvh.13091. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nguyen M.H., Wong G., Gane E., Kao J.-H., Dusheiko G. Hepatitis B Virus: Advances in Prevention, Diagnosis, and Therapy. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 2020;33:e00046-19. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00046-19. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mohareb A.M., Liu A.F., Kim A.Y., Coffie P.A., Kouame M.G., Freedberg K.A., Boyd A., Hyle E.P. Clearance of Hepatitis B e Antigen in Untreated Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J. Infect. Dis. 2022;226:1761–1770. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiac168. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources