CXCL10 and its receptor in patients with chronic hepatitis B and their ability to predict HBeAg seroconversion during antiviral treatment with TDF

Abstract The serum chemokine C‐X‐C motif ligand‐10 (CXCL10) and its unique receptor (CXCR3) may predict the prognosis of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Nevertheless, there are few reports on the profile of CXCL10 and CXCR3 and their clinical application in HBeAg (+) CHB patients during TDF antiviral therapy. CXCL10 and CXCR3 were determined in 118 CHB patients naively treated with TDF for at least 96 weeks at baseline and at treatment weeks 12 and 24. In addition, gene set enrichment analysis was used to examine the associated dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus and explore the gene sets associated with HBeAg seroconversion (SC). The change of CXCL10 (ΔCXCL10, baseline to 48‐week TDF treatment) and CXCR3 (ΔCXCR3) is closely related to the possibility of HBeAg SC of CHB patients under TDF treatment. Immunohistochemical analysis of CXCL10/CXCR3 protein in liver tissue shows that there is a significant difference between paired liver biopsy samples taken before and after 96 weeks of successful TDF treatment of CHB patients (11 pairs) but no significance for unsuccessful TDF treatment (14 pairs). Multivariate Cox analysis suggests that the ΔCXCL10 is an independent predictive indicator of HBeAg SC, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the ΔCXCL10 in CHB patients is 0.8867 ( p < 0.0001). Our results suggest that a lower descending CXCL10 level is associated with an increased probability of HBeAg SC of CHB patients during TDF therapy. Moreover, liver tissue CXCL10 might be involved in the immunological process of HBeAg SC.