Frequent HBV/HCMV co-infection is associated with the expansion of memory-like NK cells. Memory-like NK cells are largely conserved in chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Memory-like NK cells determine the NK-cell response in chronically hepatitis B virus-infected patients. Adaptive antibody-dependent NK-cell response is increased in chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

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Background During the current SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic it is important to identify risk factors for COVID‐19. Registry studies are providing growing evidence on the elevated risk of mortality from COVID‐19 in patients with chronic liver disease, especially in advanced stages. Results may, however, have a selection bias towards severe cases. Limited data is available on COVID‐19 in patients with autoimmune liver disease (AILD). Aim To perform an online survey to capture the prevalence of COVID‐19 and the state of medical care of patients with AILD in Europe during the pandemic. Methods Data was collected via an anonymous patient‐oriented, online survey, which was available on the EUSurvey platform in nine European languages between 24 th June 2020 and 14 th October 2020. Of 1834 contributions, 51 were excluded because participants did not name an underlying AILD, and four were excluded because of duplicate data entry. Results Of 1,779 participants, 1,752 resided in 20 different countries of the European Union and the United Kingdom (UK). The five countries with the highest numbers of contributions were France ( n = 450), Germany ( n = 318), the Netherlands ( n = 267), Spain ( n = 225), and the UK ( n = 183). 2.2% of participants (39/1779) had been diagnosed with COVID‐19. There were no differences regarding age, sex, AILD, the status of liver cirrhosis, or status post liver transplantation between COVID‐19 and non‐COVID‐19 cases. Of the 39 COVID‐19 cases, five patients were admitted to a regular ward, one patient was admitted to ICU and required ventilation. Conclusion In our Europe‐wide, patient‐oriented survey on COVID‐19 in patients with AILD, we detected a low rate of COVID‐19, comparable to the period prevalence of the general population. These results suggest that patients with AILD are not at elevated risk of COVID‐19.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a global health burden with increasing incidence, poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Natural killer (NK) cells exhibit potent anti-tumoral activity and therefore represent potential targets for immunotherapeutic approaches in HCC treatment. However, the anti-tumoral activity of NK cells in HCC associated with different etiologies, and the impact of the heterogeneous NK cell subset, e.g., adaptive and conventional subsets, are not understood in detail. By comparatively analyzing the NK-cell repertoire in 60 HCC patients, 33 liver cirrhosis patients and 36 healthy donors (HD), we show in this study that the NK-cell repertoire is linked to HCC etiology, with increased frequencies of adaptive NK cells in Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated HCC. Adaptive NK cells exhibited limited anti-tumoral activity toward liver cancer cells; however, this was not a result of a specific NK-cell impairment in HCC but rather represented an intrinsic feature, since the characteristics of circulating and intra-tumoral adaptive NK cells were conserved between HD, HCC and liver cirrhosis patients. Hence, the expansion of adaptive NK cells with reduced anti-tumoral activity, detectable in HBV-associated HCC, may have implications for tumor surveillance and therapy.