Well‐tolerated, ribavirin‐free, pangenotypic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments for transplant recipients remain a high priority. Once‐daily glecaprevir/pibrentasvir demonstrates high rates of sustained virologic response at 12 weeks posttreatment (SVR12) across all major HCV genotypes (GTs). This trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir for patients with chronic HCV GT1‐6 infection who had received a liver or kidney transplant. MAGELLAN‐2 was a phase 3, open‐label trial conducted in patients who were ≥3 months posttransplant. Patients without cirrhosis who were HCV treatment‐naive (GT1‐6) or treatment‐experienced (GT1, 2, 4‐6; with interferon‐based therapy with or without sofosbuvir, or sofosbuvir plus ribavirin) received glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (300/120 mg) once daily for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint compared the percentage of patients receiving glecaprevir/pibrentasvir with SVR12 to a historic SVR12 rate based on the standard of care. Safety of glecaprevir/pibrentasvir was assessed. In total, 80 liver transplant and 20 kidney transplant patients participated in the trial. Most patients had no or minimal fibrosis (80% had fibrosis scores F0‐F1) and were infected with HCV GT1 (57%) or GT3 (24%). The overall SVR12 was 98% (n/N = 98/100; 95% confidence interval, 95.3%–100%), which exceeded the prespecified historic standard‐of‐care SVR12 threshold of 94%. One patient experienced virologic failure. One patient discontinued because of an adverse event considered to be unrelated to treatment; this patient achieved SVR12. Adverse events were mostly mild in severity, and laboratory abnormalities were infrequent. Conclusion: Once‐daily glecaprevir/pibrentasvir for 12 weeks is a well‐tolerated and efficacious, ribavirin‐free treatment for patients with chronic HCV GT1‐6 infection who have received a liver or kidney transplant. (http://ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02692703.) (Hepatology 2018; 00:000‐000).

In HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients who discontinue NA therapy, the definition of relapse has a great impact on off-NAs relapse rates and potentially on the probability of retreatment. Regardless of definition, off-NAs relapses cannot be easily predicted by patient characteristics. A substantial proportion of such patients may not require retreatment if stringent criteria are adopted. (Hepatology 2017).

National Center of Excellence for Clinical Trial and Research.

Discontinuation of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate treatment rather than entecavir treatment is associated with earlier relapse, and NUC-specific posttherapy monitoring is necessary.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health problem that causes a wide spectrum of liver disease, including acute or fulminant hepatitis, inactive carrier state, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The pathogenesis of hepatocyte damage associated with HBV is mainly through immune-mediated mechanisms. On the basis of the virus and host interactions, the natural history of HBV carriers who are infected in early life can be divided into four dynamic phases. The frequency, extent, and severity of hepatitis flares or acute exacerbation in the second immune clearance and/or fourth reactivation phase predict liver disease progression in HBV carriers. In the past decade, hepatitis B viral factors including serum HBV DNA level, genotype, and naturally occurring mutants predictive of clinical outcomes have been identified. The higher the serum HBV DNA level after the immune clearance phase, the higher the incidence of adverse outcomes over time. In addition, high viral load, genotype C, basal core promoter mutation, and pre-S deletion correlate with increased risk of cirrhosis and HCC development. As to the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, patients with high HBV DNA level and genotype C or D infection are shown to have a worse response to interferon therapy. In conclusion, serum HBV DNA level, genotype, and naturally occurring mutants are identified to influence liver disease progression and therapy of chronic hepatitis B. More investigations are needed to clarify the molecular mechanisms of the viral factors involved in the pathogenesis of each stage of liver disease and the response to antiviral treatments.

Our results show that high levels of baseline serum HBV DNA are associated with non-hepatocellular carcinoma-related deaths of liver failure, while genetic mutations in the basal core promoter and precore regions are predictive for development of hepatocellular carcinoma.

No abstract

To investigate the intrafamilial transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and related risk factors, anti-HCV antibodies in 186 family members of 48 index patients were studied. The index patients were anti-HCV-positive and had chronic liver disease. Overall, 10 family members (5.4%) were positive for anti-HCV, indicating a higher prevalence of anti-HCV among family members than among the Taiwanese general population. Spouses had the highest prevalence (21%) of anti-HCV, with older age and longer duration of marriage of index patients the most evident risk factors. HCV RNA, recovered from the infected couples by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction and subsequently sequenced directly, was identical at the nucleotide level in 3 of the 4 couples studied, and the remaining couple had a homology of greater than 96%. These results strongly support that interspousal transmission may be the most important route of intrafamilial spreading of HCV, and thus sexual transmission, although with low efficiency, should be considered important in HCV infection.