Changes of natural killer cells’ phenotype in patients with chronic hepatitis B in intermittent interferon therapy

作者：Xiaoyue Bi, Si Xie, Shuling Wu, Weihua Cao, Yanjie Lin, Yang Liu, Tingting Jiang, Wen Deng, Shiyu Wang, Ruyu Liu, Yuanjiao Gao, Ge Shen, Min Chang, Hongxiao Hao, Mengjiao Xu, Xiaoxue Chen, Leiping Hu, Yao Lu, Lu Zhang, Yao Xie, Minghui Li · 发表于：Frontiers in Immunology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fimmu.2023.1116689 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Hepatitis B Virus Studies、Hepatitis C virus research、Immune Cell Function and Interaction

Background To investigate the changes of natural killer (NK) cell phenotype in the interferon alpha (IFN-α) treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and its relationship with clinical indicators. Methods The CHB patients who did not receive any antiviral treatment were set as initial treatment group and used pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN α). Peripheral blood samples were collected at baseline, 4 weeks, and 12-24 weeks. For IFN-treated patients who entered the plateau were set as plateau group, and PEG-IFN α was discontinued and resumed after an interval of 12-24 weeks. Besides, we also enrolled some patients who had received oral drug for more than 6 months as oral drug group without follow up. Peripheral blood was collected during the plateau period, which was set as baseline, and after 12-24 weeks of intermittent treatment, and after 12-24 weeks of additional treatment with PEG-IFN α. The aim of the collection was to detect hepatitis B virus (HBV) virology, serology and biochemical indicators, and the NK cell related phenotype was detected by flow cytometry. Results In the plateau group, subgroup of CD69 + CD56 dim was higher with statistical significance when comparing with the initial treatment group and oral drug group [10.49 (5.27, 19.07) vs 5.03 (3.67, 8.58), Z = -3.11, P = 0.002; 10.49 (5.27, 19.07) vs 4.04 (1.90, 7.26), Z = -5.30, P < 0.001)]. CD57 + CD56 dim was significantly lower than that in initial treatment group and oral drug group respectively [68....