Clinical significance of hepatitis B virus associated polymerized human serum albumin receptor (HBV-pAR) activity and anti-par antibody in hepatitis B patients treated with interferon

We examined the activity of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) associated polymerized human serum albumin receptor (HBV-pAR) and the antibody to HBV-pAR (anti-pAR) in the sera from 14 patients of chronic hepatitis B treated with interferon (IFN) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Seroconversion (SC) of HBeAg was observed in 4 cases at the end of the IFN therapy (treatment), and in 4 cases 6 months after treatment. These cases as above had low HBV-pAR activities before treatment or rapidly decreasing HBV-pAR activities during the treatment. In cases whose HBV-pAR activities decreased minimally during the treatment in spite of the temporal disappearance of HBeAg after the treatment, it reappeared with the exacerbation of S-GPT. On the other hand, S-GPT remained in normal range in the cases with low HBV-pAR levels and positive anti-pAR antibody at the time of SC. These results indicate that HBV-pAR activity and anti-pAR antibody might be more useful markers for determing the outcome of hepatitis B patients treated with IFN.