Elevated serum levels of soluble CD14 in HBeAg‐positive chronic HBV patients upon Peginterferon treatment are associated with treatment response

Abstract

Pegylated IFNα (PEG‐IFN) is one of the treatment options for chronic HBV (CHB) patients. However, the high patient treatment burden and limited response rate together clearly ask for biomarkers to predict PEG‐IFN response. Soluble CD14 (sCD14) is considered a marker for immune activation and has been shown to predict clinical outcome of HIV infection. However, studies on sCD14 in CHB infection are inconclusive, and its relationship with clinical outcome is largely unknown. Here, we measured sCD14 levels in CHB patients and investigated whether changes in sCD14 level related to PEG‐IFN response. Serum sCD14 levels were determined in 15 healthy controls, 15 acute self‐limited HBV, 60 CHB patients in different disease phases and 94 HBeAg+ CHB patients at week 0 and week 12 of a 52‐week PEG‐IFN treatment. Response to PEG‐IFN treatment was defined as HBeAg seroconversion or HBeAg loss at 26 weeks post‐treatment. The mean sCD14 level in acute HBV patients (3.0 µg/mL) was significantly higher than in CHB patients (2.4 µg/mL) and healthy controls (2.4 µg/mL). In CHB patients receiving PEG‐IFN, a significant increase in sCD14 was found after 12‐week treatment (median week 0:2.1 µg/mL; week 12:3.7 µg/mL). After 12‐week treatment, the fold change (FC = w12/w0) in sCD14 was significantly higher in responders compared to nonresponders (HBeAg seroconversion: median FCresponder = 2.1 vs FCnonresponder = 1.6; HBeAg loss: median FCresponder = 2.2 vs FCnonresponder = 1.5). Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated that FC‐sCD14wk12/wk0 levels can be of significant value as a stopping rule to select patients at week 12 who are not likely to benefit from further PEG‐IFN treatment.

A roadmap for serum biomarkers for hepatitis B virus: current status and future outlook

“…sCD14 sCD14, a co-receptor for lipopolysaccharides, is a biomarker in infectious and inflammatory diseases that is produced by liver monocytes, macrophages and human hepatocytes. sCD14 levels were substantially higher in AHB than in patients with CHB or healthy individuals as controls in one study 217 . sCD14 level increased substantially at 12 weeks post-treatment compared to baseline in patients with CHB receiving peg-IFNα, with the fold change being substantially higher in responders than in non-responders.…”

“…sCD14 levels were substantially higher in AHB than in patients with CHB or healthy individuals as controls in one study 217 .…”

Prognostic Significance of Alpha-Fetoprotein in Staging of Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

“…The serum and intrahepatic levels of those biomarkers as well as their dynamics under treatment varies during the course of CHBI, which makes them a promising candidate. [22] Unfortunately, they are also not flawfree, rather they have one shortcoming or the others. [15] Among these limitations are; invasiveness, sampling bias, lack of standardization which usually resulted in inter assay conflicting results and high cost of reagents.…”