Serum WFA+-M2BP levels for evaluation of early stages of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
Accurate evaluation of liver fibrosis is crucial for predicting progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We assessed the utility of a novel fibrosis glycobiomarker Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2-binding protein (WFA+-M2BP) for evaluating liver fibrosis and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection.



We enrolled 774 patients with chronic HBV infection, with or without fibrosis, diagnosed by liver biopsy/FibroScan. Patients who underwent liver biopsy (n = 297) were divided into training (n = 221) and validation (n = 76) groups. Serum WFA+-M2BP values were measured and compared with FIB-4 index, aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio (APRI) and AST-to-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR) using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.



Serum WFA+-M2BP levels increased significantly with fibrosis progression (P < 0.0001). Area under the ROC curve of WFA+-M2BP for diagnosing significant fibrosis was higher than that of FIB-4 (P = 0.198), APRI (P = 0.017) and AAR (P < 0.001), with sensitivity and specificity in the training set of 60.5% and 79.8% and validation set of 59.5% and 82.1%, respectively. Serum WFA+-M2BP levels were significantly correlated with FibroScan values (P < 0.0001) and improved the accuracy of FibroScan in assessing significant fibrosis. Changes in WFA+-M2BP levels were parallel with those in FibroScan values during nucleot(s)ide analogues therapy in patients with chronic HBV infection.



WFA+-M2BP is an accurate serum indicator for assessing early stages of liver fibrosis and may monitor regression of fibrosis during the treatment of chronic HBV infection. WFA+-M2BP provides a simple and reliable alternative or complementary method to liver biopsy and FibroScan.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.|Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.|Department of Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.|SCSB (China)-AIST (Japan) Joint Medical Glycomics Laboratory, Shanghai, China.
Xia
X
Zou
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Ming-Yu
MY
Zhu
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
De-Min
DM
Yu
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Wei
W
Li
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Dong-Hua
DH
Zhang
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Fei-Jie
FJ
Lu
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Qi-Ming
QM
Gong
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Feng
F
Liu
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Jie-Hong
JH
Jiang
Department of Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Min-Hua
MH
Zheng
SCSB (China)-AIST (Japan) Joint Medical Glycomics Laboratory, Shanghai, China.|Research Center for Medical Glycoscience, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Atsushi
A
Kuno
SCSB (China)-AIST (Japan) Joint Medical Glycomics Laboratory, Shanghai, China.|Research Center for Medical Glycoscience, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Hisashi
H
Narimatsu
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.|SCSB (China)-AIST (Japan) Joint Medical Glycomics Laboratory, Shanghai, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai, China.
Yan
Y
Zhang
Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.|Translational Medicine Research Center, Ruijin Hospital North, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Xin-Xin
XX
Zhang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002681:China; D018450:Disease Progression; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques; D005260:Female; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D037121:Plant Lectins; D012372:ROC Curve; D034781:Receptors, N-Acetylglucosamine; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015415:Biomarkers; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D037121:Plant Lectins; D034781:Receptors, N-Acetylglucosamine; C114782:TAA90K protein, human; C040129:wisteria lectin
Mac-2-binding protein; Wisteria floribunda agglutinin; chronic hepatitis B; liver fibrosis