Hepatitis B splice-generated protein antibodies in Syrian chronic hepatitis B patients: incidence and significance.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have suggested hepatitis B splice-generated protein (HBSP), when expressed, is involved in the pathogenesis of HBV infection.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to evaluate anti-HBSP incidence and association with several HBV infection parameters in a group of Syrian chronic hepatitis B patients.


METHODS
Eighty treatment-naïve HBsAg-positive adult chronic hepatitis B patients' sera were included in our prospective targeted study. Liver function, virological and histological tests results were obtained from patients' medical files. Three variants of a 20-mer HBSP-derived peptide were designed based on HBV genome sequences obtained from Syrian patients' sera (GenBank Accession No. JN257148-JN257217). Microtiter plate wells were coated with the synthetic peptides and used to detect anti-HBSP antibodies by an optimized indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Samples were considered positive when showed optical density (OD) values higher than the cut-off value for at least one peptide variant.


RESULTS
Seven out of eighty (9%) CHB patients were positive for anti-HBSP antibodies. Mean OD values were not significantly different between HBeAg-positive and -negative patients (P > 0.05). OD values showed weak positive correlation with ALT and AST values (P < 0.05), and weak to moderate positive correlation with liver biopsy staging ranks (P < 0.05). No significant correlation was revealed with viral load values or liver biopsy grading ranks (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
We introduced an anti-HBSP antibodies ELISA, designed for locally circulating HBV strains. Correlation observed of Anti-HBSP with liver fibrosis staging regardless of viral replication and liver inflammation suggests anti-HBSP antibodies as possible indicator for HBV-associated liver fibrosis.
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria.
Nour
N
Al-Hanafi
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria ; Clinical Laboratories Department, AL-Assad Hospital, Damascus University, Damascus, Syria.
Fawza
F
Monem
HBSP protein, Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis B, Chronic; Syria