Useful biomarkers for predicting poor prognosis of patients with drug-induced liver injury: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) plays an important role in liver failure and causes mortality. Patients with DILI compatible with Hy's law are associated with poorer outcomes. However, the predictive accuracy of Hy's law is not good enough in clinical practice.

Systemic lupus erythematosus and autoimmune hepatitis overlap disease in a hospitalized systemic lupus erythematosus cohort.

Liver dysfunction in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is caused by disease activity or secondary conditions like coexistent autoimmune liver diseases. In Taiwan, despite sporadically reported cases of SLE-autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) overlap disease, larger-scale monocentric investigations for such overlapping patients are not available. Retrospective analyses were performed in a hospitalized SLE cohort with 805 patients for identifying co-existent AIH from 2014 to 2023, focusing on distinct therapeutic modalities and differential diagnosis between SLE-AIH overlap and lupus hepatitis (LH).

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors, alone or in combination, in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with macrovascular invasion: a single-centre experience in Taiwan.

Background: The presence of vascular invasion is associated with poor survival in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We compared the effectiveness of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), alone or in combination, in patients with advanced HCC.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of adult patients with unresectable HCC and macrovascular invasion (MVI) who were treated with HAIC or ICIs alone or in combination at a single centre in Taiwan.

Real-World Effectiveness of Sorafenib versus Lenvatinib Combined with PD-1 Inhibitors in Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) combined with multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitors (MTKIs) exert a synergistic effect and are effective in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC). However, precise data regarding the real-world clinical applications of these combination therapies in uHCC are lacking. This study compared the treatment efficacy of sorafenib versus lenvatinib in combination with programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitors in patients with uHCC in a clinical setting.

Real-World Comparative Effectiveness of Nivolumab versus Pembrolizumab in Patients with Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Purpose: Immune checkpoint inhibitors are effective therapies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, comparisons of the clinical efficacy and safety profile for these drugs are still scarce. Thus, the aims of this study were to investigate the differences in efficacy and safety between nivolumab and pembrolizumab in unresectable HCC patients in a real-world setting.

Patients And Methods: A total of 115 patients who received treatment with nivolumab (n = 73) or pembrolizumab (n = 42) in combination with or without tyrosine kinase inhibitors was enrolled.

Clinical Implications of Serum Hepatitis B Virus Pregenomic RNA Kinetics in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Receiving Antiviral Treatment and Those Achieving HBsAg Loss.

Serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) is correlated with covalently closed circular DNA. We aimed to investigate the utility of serum HBV pgRNA in chronic hepatitis B patients receiving nucleos(t)ide analogue treatment and those achieving HBsAg loss. One hundred and eighty-five patients were enrolled for studying long-term HBV pgRNA kinetics during treatment.

Real-world outcome of immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with macrovascular tumor thrombosis.

Programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitors have shown promising results for treating advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the clinical utility of such inhibitors in HCC patients with vascular tumor thrombosis remains unclear. This study investigated PD-1 inhibitor efficacy in advanced HCC with macrovascular invasion in a clinical setting.

Effectiveness and safety of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir for genotype 2 chronic hepatitis C infection: Real-world experience from Taiwan.

Background/purpose: Genotype 2 (GT2) hepatitis C virus infection is the second common genotype in Taiwan. Real-world experience of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) for GT2 infection is limited. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of LDV/SOF in patients with GT2 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection.

Impact of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors with or without a Combination of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors on Organ-Specific Efficacy and Macrovascular Invasion in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Introduction: The tumor microenvironments of different organs often differ and thus may affect the immunotherapy response.

Objective: This study elucidated that the efficacy of programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitors varies across different metastatic sites among individuals with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed treatment outcomes in advanced HCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors with or without a combination of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).

Genotyping of immune-related loci associated with delayed HBeAg seroconversion in immune-active chronic hepatitis B patients.

The progression of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is associated with single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In this study, we demonstrated the association between immune-related SNPs and delayed spontaneous HBeAg seroconversion in immune-active CHB patients. In addition, we investigated the impact of delayed spontaneous HBeAg seroconversion-related SNPs on HBeAg seroconversion within 3 years during antiviral treatment.

Insulin Resistance Associated Disorders Pivoting Long-Term Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Decline During Entecavir Therapy.

Insulin resistance associated disorders (IRAD), including prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and fatty liver are significant risk factors of liver-related death in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). However, their relationship remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate how IRAD influence the kinetics of serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in patients with CHB during long-term entecavir treatment.

Fully galactosyl-fucosyl-bisected IgG reduces anti-HBV efficacy and liver histological improvement.

N-glycosylation on the crystallizable fragment (Fc) governs antibody-mediated immune responses. This study addressed the relevance of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc)-bisected IgG on the disease progression and treatment efficacy in the immune active phase of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Serum IgGN-glycan patterns from 166 HBV e antigen (HBeAg)-positive patients were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Applications of next-generation sequencing analysis for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma-associated hepatitis B virus mutations.

Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful and high-throughput method for the detection of viral mutations. This article provides a brief overview about optimization of NGS analysis for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-associated hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations, and hepatocarcinogenesis of relevant mutations.

Main Body: For the application of NGS analysis in the genome of HBV, four noteworthy steps were discovered in testing.

Clinical utility of hepatitis B surface antigen kinetics in treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients during long-term entecavir therapy.

Aim: To investigate the utility of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) kinetics in chronic hepatitis B patients during long-term entecavir treatment.

Methods: This retrospective study included treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients who received at least 2 years of consecutive entecavir treatment. Patients were followed up at three to six month intervals with liver biochemistry, hepatitis B virus DNA, and abdominal sonography.

Hepatocellular carcinoma-associated single-nucleotide variants and deletions identified by the use of genome-wide high-throughput analysis of hepatitis B virus.

This study investigated hepatitis B virus (HBV) single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and deletion mutations linked with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Ninety-three HCC patients and 108 non-HCC patients were enrolled for HBV genome-wide next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. A systematic literature review and a meta-analysis were performed to validate NGS-defined HCC-associated SNVs and deletions.

Favorable Response to Long-term Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Therapy in HBeAg-positive Patients with High Serum Fucosyl-Agalactosyl IgG.

Aberrant IgG glycosylation is a feature of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection but its effect on a long-term efficacy of antiviral therapy has never been addressed. After a screening of 1,085 patients, 132 eligible HBV e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 101 HBeAg-negative patients with anti-HBV nucleos(t)ide analogue monotherapy were enrolled with on-treatment follow-ups for at least one year. IgG1 N-glycome was profiled using mass spectrometry and evaluated for its relevance in treatment responses.

Lipoprotein lipase liberates free fatty acids to inhibit HCV infection and prevent hepatic lipid accumulation.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) has been identified as an anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) host factor, but the cellular mechanism remains elusive. Here, we investigated the cellular mechanism of LPL involving in anti-HCV. The functional activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α signal by LPL transducing into hepatocytes was investigated in HCV-infected cells, primary human hepatocytes, and in HCV-core transgenic mice.

Prediction of early hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence using germinal center kinase-like kinase.

Germinal center kinase-like kinase (GLK) is a key controller of autoimmunity. In this study, we assessed the clinical relevance and tumorigenic effects of GLK in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Using immunohistochemistry, we showed that the GLK proportion score increased in both cancerous and adjacent non-cancerous liver tissue from patients with HCC recurrence.

Resistance of ground glass hepatocytes to oral antivirals in chronic hepatitis B patients and implication for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Ground glass hepatocytes (GGHs) have been shown to predict the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Type I GGH and type II GGH harbor hepatitis B virus (HBV) pre-S1 and pre-S2 deletion mutants, respectively. Whether anti-HBV therapy can inhibit the expression of GGHs and potentially reduce HCC development is explored in this study.

Stochastic resource allocation in emergency departments with a multi-objective simulation optimization algorithm.

The number of emergency cases or emergency room visits rapidly increases annually, thus leading to an imbalance in supply and demand and to the long-term overcrowding of hospital emergency departments (EDs). However, current solutions to increase medical resources and improve the handling of patient needs are either impractical or infeasible in the Taiwanese environment. Therefore, EDs must optimize resource allocation given limited medical resources to minimize the average length of stay of patients and medical resource waste costs.

Aligning to the sample-specific reference sequence to optimize the accuracy of next-generation sequencing analysis for hepatitis B virus.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) quasispecies are crucial in the pathogenesis of chronic liver disease. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is powerful for identifying viral quasispecies. To improve mapping quality and single nucleotide variant (SNV) calling accuracy in the NGS analysis of HBV, we compared different mapping references, including the sample-specific reference sequence, same genotype sequences and different genotype sequences, according to the sample.

HBsAg expression of liver correlates with histological activities and viral replication in chronic hepatitis B.

Introduction: The intrahepatic hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg) expression is related to disease progression of chronic hepatitis B. We examined the features of intrahepatic HBsAg expression.

Material And Methods: A total of 181 patients with e antigen positive chronic hepatitis B were enrolled.