Correlation of HBV Core-Related Antigen with Conventional Serologic Indicators of Hepatitis B and Disease Stage.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious global public health issue. Currently, serological indicators serve as important markers for the diagnosis of hepatitis B. It has been found that HBV core-related antigen (HBcrAg) correlates well with intrahepatic cccDNA, intrahepatic HBV DNA, serum HBV DNA, and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg). To provide a more reliable basis for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B, we explored the correlation between HBcrAg and conventional serologic testing indicators and disease staging. METHODS: Five hundred forty-two patient serum samples were collected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from November 2021 to March 2022. The serum HBcrAg was measured by the magnetic particle chemiluminescence method in addition with other serum indicators. RESULTS: HBcrAg statistically correlated with HBV DNA level (r = 0.655, p < 0.001) and HBeAg level (r = 0.945, p < 0.001. The mean HBcrAg levels in the immune-tolerant and immune-clearance phases were significantly higher than those in the immunologic-control phase and the reactivation phase. This study demonstrated that serum HBcrAg positively correlated with serum HBV DNA and HBeAg. Even in cases where HBV DNA and HBeAg are negative, there is still a higher positivity rate of HBcrAg in hepatitis B patients. CONCLUSIONS: HBcrAg is a reliable serum marker to avoid underdiagnosis of occult HBV infection.

Role of hematological parameters in the diagnosis of influenza virus infection in patients with respiratory tract infection symptoms.

BACKGROUND: The differential diagnoses of patients hospitalized for respiratory infections due to influenza virus vs other pathogens are challenging. Our study investigated whether hematological parameters such as neutrophil (N), lymphocyte (L), platelet (PLT), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) contributed in diagnosing influenza virus infections and in discriminating other respiratory infections. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the laboratory characteristics of 307 patients with respiratory infections caused by influenza/non-influenza virus and bacteria. The diagnostic abilities of hematological indexes were evaluated in the patients compared with 100 healthy people. RESULTS: The hematological parameters in patients with influenza virus infection were dramatically altered compared with those in the controls. Additionally, among the systemic inflammatory markers, the sensitivity of NLR for influenza detection was higher than that of N and L. PLT was significantly lower in influenza virus-positive infection than in influenza virus-negative infection. Moreover, when patients with influenza virus infection were cured, PLT returned to a normal level. The red blood cell (RBC) and hemoglobin (Hb) levels of influenza virus infection were higher than those of bacterial infection. Compared with traditional N and L, NLR and platelet-to-neutrophil (PNR) showed greater significance between influenza virus and bacterial infection (P < .01). CONCLUSION: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio with high sensitivity is a preferable diagnostic tool to screen influenza virus-infected patients than N and L. PLT accounts in the differential diagnoses of respiratory infections due to influenza virus and other pathogens among patients. In addition, RBC, Hb, NLR, and PNR can significantly differentiate between influenza virus infections and bacterial infections.

Expression levels of CD28, CTLA-4, PD-1 and Tim-3 as novel indicators of T-cell immune function in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is one of the most common types of infectious diseases worldwide. The interaction between hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the host immune response is vital for the clinical outcome of HBV infection. Costimulatory signals are key factors for the host immune response and play a critical role in innate immunity, particularly antiviral immunity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between the expression levels of costimulatory molecules and the different states of CHB infection, including the expression levels prior to and following treatment with antiviral agents. The expression levels of CD28, CTLA-4, PD-1, Tim-3 and T-cell subsets were determined by flow cytometry. The load of HBV DNA in the serum was detected by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and the serology markers, including HBeAg and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), were measured by conventional methods. Compared to the healthy control group, the expression levels of CD28 and CTLA-4 on CD4 T cells prior to and following treatment with antiviral agents (the pre- and post-treatment groups, respectively) were significantly decreased, while the expression levels of Tim-3 on CD4 and CD8 T cells were significantly increased. In addition, the expression levels of PD-1 on CD4 and CD8 T cells in the pre-treatment group were significantly increased compared to those in the post-treatment and healthy control groups. Moreover, the multivariate analysis revealed that the levels of ALT and HBV-DNA in the serum were significantly positively correlated with PD-1 expression levels. In conclusion, the expression levels of these costimulatory molecules reflect the immune dysfunction of T cells in patients with CHB and, combined with T-cell subset analysis may be used as a novel evaluation system of immune function in patients with HBV infection.

[High-resolution melting analysis for the detection of EGFR mutations in circulating DNA of lung cancer patients].

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the practicability of detecting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in plasma circulating DNA of lung cancer patients by high-resolution melting (HRM). METHODS: The sensitivity of HRM was analyzed by the detection of samples containing different proportions of EGFR-mutated plasmids. The mutations in exons 19 and 21 of EGFR were detected by HRM in 96 lung cancer patients from September 2009 to May 2010. And the results of HRM were compared with those of sequencing. RESULTS: The HRM detection could identify the EGFR mutations in a proportion of 5% of mutated plasmid DNA. And the EGFR mutations were detected in 17 (17.7%, 17/96) cases. Among which, the number of exons 19 and 21 mutations was 15 (88.2%, 15/17) and 2 (11.8%, 2/17) respectively. The results of sequencing were consistent. CONCLUSION: The HRM analysis may be an optimal method for clinical screening of EGFR mutation due to its simplicity and promptness with a high sensitivity.