Occult HBV infection in Morocco: from chronic hepatitis to hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

This study helps to understand the current status of OBI and its impact on the severity of liver disease in Moroccan patients.

Clinical impact of occult hepatitis B virus infection in immunosuppressed patients

“…OBI may be observed in the window period of acute HBV infection [16] in blood donors and in recipients of blood and blood products [9,17,18] , in patients with HCV chronic infection [7,19] , in cryptogenic chronic hepatitis, in patients under pharmacological suppression of the immune system [20,21] and in those with immunodepression due to HIV infection; it has also been associated to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] . It has been shown that the hepatitis B virus maintains its pro-oncogenic properties in OBI [31] and that its presence in patients with chronic hepatitis C is associated with a higher risk of disease progression and HCC development [32][33][34][35][36] and with a reduced response to alfa interferon treatment [37][38][39] . The clinical importance of OBI is also underscored by the need for nucleot(s)ide treatment to prevent the recurrence of HBV infection in HBsAgnegative/anti-HBc-positive patients in various immunosuppressive settings [40][41][42] .…”

Occult hepatitis B virus infection among people with a family history of chronic hepatitis B virus infection

“…Interestingly, the results of several studies indicate that OBI exists in patients with hepatitis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer [Chan et al, 2002;Simonetti et al, 2010;Huang and Hollinger, 2014;Kitab et al, 2014]. However, cross-sectional analysis revealed that only a small number of people have abnormal liver function, while our results indicate that alanine transaminase, total bilirubin, and other liver function test results were similar between OBI and non-HBV infected patients.…”

“…Occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) can be defined as the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in the blood or liver, in the absence of detectable serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and with or without detectable antibodies to the hepatitis B core protein (anti-HBc) [Brechot et al, 2001;Raimondo et al, 2008]. Although the mechanism and clinical implications of OBI have not been clearly elucidated, OBI has been associated with the risk to develop cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [Chan et al, 2002;Simonetti et al, 2010;Huang and Hollinger, 2014;Kitab et al, 2014]. In addition, immunosuppression in patients with OBI may lead to HBV reactivation [Knoll et al, 2005;Macera et al, 2014;Seetharam et al, 2014].…”

Occult hepatitis B virus infection is not associated with disease progression of chronic hepatitis C virus infection

“…The OBI prevalence in chronic HCV patients was 45.7% (42/92) in Morocco[25] and 20% (18/50) in Iran[26], while none of 100 Portuguese patients showed serum OBI[19]. A retrospective study in Taiwan showed that serum OBI prevalence as determined by nested PCR using 3 sets of primers in patients with chronic HCV infection was 14.8% (31 of 210), which did not differ from that of healthy controls (15%, 15/100), and the prevalence of OBI did not parallel the severity of liver disease (14.5% in chronic hepatitis, 8% in liver cirrhosis, and 22% in HCC)[27].…”