Association between gut microbiota and hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancer: A mendelian randomization study.

Background: An increasing number of studies have begun to discuss the relationship between gut microbiota and diseases, yet there is currently a lack of corresponding articles describing the association between gut microbiota and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and biliary tract cancer (BTC). This study aims to explore the relationship between them using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis method.

Aim: To assess the relationship between gut microbiota and HCC and BTC.

Lipid nanoparticle-mediated delivery of IL-21-encoding mRNA induces viral clearance in mouse models of hepatitis B virus persistence.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), the transcription template for all viral mRNAs, is highly stable and current treatment options cannot effectively induce its clearance. Previously, we established an HBV persistence mouse model based on a clinical isolate (termed BPS) and identified interleukin-21 (IL-21) as a potent inducer of HBV clearance. Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) mediated delivery of mRNA has proven to be a highly safe and effective delivery platform.

Naturally occurring 5' preS1 deletions markedly enhance replication and infectivity of HBV genotype B and genotype C.

Background And Aims: Deletion of 15-nucleotide or 18-nucleotide (nt) covering preS1 ATG frequently arises during chronic infection with HBV genotypes B and C. Since the second ATG is 33nt downstream, they truncate large (L) envelope protein by 11 residues like wild-type genotype D. This study characterised their functional consequences.

Platelet activation during chronic hepatitis B infection exacerbates liver inflammation and promotes fibrosis.

Recurrent hepatitis activity during chronic hepatitis B virus infection results in fibrosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma. It is still unclear what causes acute exacerbation. As platelets have recently been identified as a significant role in inflammation, we here investigated the role of platelets in mediating liver damage in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Development and Validation of a Novel Model to Predict Liver Histopathology in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B.

It is still vague for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with normal or mildly increasing alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level to undergo antiviral treatment or not. The purpose of our study was to establish a noninvasive model based on routine blood test to predict liver histopathology for antiviral therapy. This retrospective study enrolled 258 CHB patients with liver biopsy from the First Hospital of Quanzhou (training cohort, n=126) and Huashan Hospital (validation cohort, n=132).

A promising non-invasive index for predicting liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis B patients with alanine aminotransferase ≤2 upper limit of normal.

Inexpensive and simple non-invasive indexes for predicting liver inflammation are urgently required, but have been poorly studied in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with alanine transaminase (ALT) ≤2 times the upper limit of normal (ULN). A total of 356 CHB patients with ALT ≤2 ULN who presented at Huashan Hospital (n=181) and the First Hospital of Quanzhou (n=175) were enrolled and randomly divided into an experimental assessment cohort (n=238) and validation cohort (n=118) at a ratio of 2:1. Histological analysis of liver tissue was performed to determine the pathological stage according to the Scheuer scoring system.