Early upsurge in anti-HBs titer possibly caused by the immunomodulative, not by the mutagenetic effect of interferon and ribavirin.
A patient with chronic hepatitis B and C undergoing treatment with interferon and ribavirin showed an upsurge in hepatitis B virus surface antibody (anti-HBs) titer, accompanied by a decrease in hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) during the early treatment phase. Simultaneously, elevation of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was observed. Subsequently, the hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA titer decreased and HBV e antigen (HBeAg) to anti-HBe seroconversion occurred. The anti-HBs titer gradually returned to the pretreatment level after cessation of ribavirin treatment and HBV-DNA became undetectable. We found no nucleotide mutations in HBV-DNA that could explain the sudden elevation in anti-HBs titer. The appearance of anti-HBs was considered to be a break in immune tolerance against some epitopes in HBsAg, possibly the r epitope, stimulated by interferon/ribavirin treatment. The immunomodulatory effect of ribavirin might have caused this unexpected early immune response to HBsAg that preceded seroconversion to anti-HBe.
Yamazaki
Kazuhide
K
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences of Niigata University, Niigata-city, Japan.
Ohkoshi
Shogo
S
Maruyama
Masaki
M
Aoki
Yo-Hei
YH
Yano
Masahiko
M
Kurita
So
S
Suzuki
Kenta
K
Matsuda
Yasunobu
Y
Sugimura
Kazuhito
K
Aoyagi
Yutaka
Y