{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Measuring HBV pregenomic RNA may be a potential biomarker to determine HBV functional cure in HIV/HBV-co-infected patients with HBsAg loss.
{Author}: Gu F;Zeng K;Lan X;He Y;Li F;Tang X;Hu F;Li L;
{Journal}: J Med Virol
{Volume}: 96
{Issue}: 6
{Year}: 2024 Jun
{Factor}: 20.693
{DOI}: 10.1002/jmv.29762
{Abstract}: Functional cure of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is an optimal treatment goal for chronic hepatitis B, with the loss of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) being a crucial indicator. However, the adequacy of HBsAg loss for evaluating functional cure of HBV in patients co-infected with HBV/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains controversial. In this study, we measured HBV pregenomic RNA (pgRNA), a potential biomarker that correlates with covalently closed circular DNA, in the frozen plasma of 98 patients with HBsAg loss from a large HIV/HBV co-infection cohort in Guangzhou, China. HBV pgRNA was still detected in 43.9% (44/98) of the patients, suggesting active HBV replication in individuals with HBsAg loss. Our observations imply that HBsAg loss may not be a reliable predictor of HBV functional cure in cases of HIV/HBV co-infection.