Background and aims<\/p>\n
The optimal management strategy for adults with immune-tolerant (IT) chronic hepatitis B infection remains undefined. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and predictive factors of a pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN)-based treatment strategy in IT patients with chronic HBV infection.<\/p>\n
Methods<\/p>\n
In this pilot, open-label, prospective study, 286 patients aged 18 to 60 years with IT characteristics were enrolled and allocated to one of three groups. The combination group received Peg-IFN for 48\u201396 weeks, with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) initiated at week 12 and continued through week 96 (n = 103). The monotherapy group received TDF monotherapy alone (n = 125), and the control group was monitored without therapeutic intervention (n = 58).<\/p>\n
Results<\/p>\n
No patients in the control group met any predefined efficacy<\/a> endpoints. Intention-to-treat analysis showed that patients in the combination group achieved significantly higher virological response rates (71.8% vs. 53.6%,\u00a0p\u00a0= 0.005), hepatitis B e antigen<\/a> seroconversion rates (15.5% vs. 1.6%,\u00a0p\u00a0< 0.001), and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss rates (10.7% vs. 0%,\u00a0p\u00a0< 0.001) compared with those in the monotherapy group at week 96. In the combination group, the cumulative rate of HBsAg loss was 5.4% at week 48 and increased to 11.8% by week 96. Independent predictors of achieving either hepatitis B e antigen seroconversion or HBsAg loss were baseline age under 30 years (odds ratio = 0.217, 95% confidence interval: 0.048\u20130.976,\u00a0p\u00a0= 0.046) and a decline in HBsAg level greater than 1 log10 IU\/mL by week 24 (odds ratio = 13.976, 95% confidence interval: 2.506\u201377.932,\u00a0p\u00a0= 0.003).<\/p>\n Conclusions<\/p>\n In conclusion, response rates may be higher in IT phase patients under 30 years of age who receive Peg-IFN-based therapy compared to those receiving NUC monotherapy. Additionally, patients who achieve a decline in HBsAg level of more than 1 log10\u00a0IU\/mL by week 24 relative to baseline may be considered for extension of Peg-IFN treatment duration to 72\u201396 weeks. In China, Peg-IFN-based therapy is not routinely used in adults during the IT phase of chronic HBV infection. This study provides evidence to inform and refine clinical decision-making in this understudied IT-phase patients.<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Liu, M., et al. (2026). Pegylated Interferon-based Treatment Improves Response Rates in Immune-tolerant Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B: A Prospective Trial. Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology. DOI: 10.14218\/jcth.2025.00712.\u00a0https:\/\/www.xiahepublishing.com\/2310-8819\/JCTH-2025-00712<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Background and aims The optimal management strategy for adults with immune-tolerant (IT) chronic hepatitis B infection remains undefined.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1729,4080,64690,137,48341,64688,1731,121774,1726,337,39080],"class_list":["post-688160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chronic","tag-efficacy","tag-hbv","tag-health","tag-hepatitis","tag-hepatitis-b","tag-hepatology","tag-interferon","tag-liver","tag-research","tag-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}