Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle
Published on: February 1, 2017
Hepatitis B core-related antigen dynamics and risk of subsequent clinical relapses after nucleos(t)ide analog
Ying-Nan Tsai1,2, Jia-Ling Wu3, Cheng-Hao Tseng1,2
1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, E-Da Cancer Hospital, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Background/Aims:
Finite nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) therapy has been proposed as an alternative treatment strategy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but biomarkers for post-treatment monitoring are limited. We investigated whether measuring hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) after NA cessation may stratify the risk of subsequent clinical relapse (CR).
Methods:
This retrospective multicenter analysis enrolled adults with CHB who were prospectively monitored after discontinuing entecavir or tenofovir with negative HBeAg and undetectable HBV DNA at the end of treatment (EOT). Patients with cirrhosis or malignancy were excluded. CR was defined as serum alanine aminotransferase > two times the upper limit of normal with recurrent viremia. We applied time-dependent Cox proportional hazard models to clarify the association between HBcrAg levels and subsequent CR.
Results:
The cohort included 203 patients (median age, 49.8 years; 76.8% male; 60.6% entecavir) who had been treated for a median of 36.9 months (interquartile range [IQR], 36.5-40.1). During a median post-treatment follow-up of 31.7 months (IQR, 16.7-67.1), CR occurred in 104 patients with a 5-year cumulative incidence of 54.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 47.1-62.4%). Time-varying HBcrAg level was a significant risk factor for subsequent CR (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.53 per log U/mL; 95% CI, 1.12-2.08) with adjustment for EOT HBsAg, EOT anti-HBe, EOT HBcrAg and time-varying HBsAg. During follow-up, HBcrAg <1,000 U/mL predicted a lower risk of CR (aHR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.21-0.81).
Conclusion:
Dynamic measurement of HBcrAg after NA cessation is predictive of subsequent CR and may be useful to guide post-treatment monitoring.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Retroviruses
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Non-LTR Retrotransposons
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...

