Peripheral blood samples were collected from all enrolled patients during the screening period. Samples were then continuously collected after enrollment every 24 weeks (the NAs group) or every 12 weeks (the Add-on group). Serological and biochemical markers of HBV were routinely tested in the central clinical laboratory. Serum HBV DNA levels were determined by the
COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HBV Test (Roche Molecular Systems, Inc, Branchburg, USA). The lower limit for HBV DNA detection was 20 IU/ml. Serum HBsAg levels were quantified by
Elecsys HBsAg II quant II (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). The lower limit for HBsAg detection was 0.05 IU/ml.
COBAS e602 (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) was used to detect HBsAb, HBeAg, and HBeAb levels. Serum levels of IFNG, IL1B, IL1RN, IL2, IL4, IL6, IL10, IL12A, IL17A, CCL2, CCL3, CCL5, CXCL8, CXCL10, TNF, and CSF2 were determined by flow-cytometer using AIMPLEX kit (Aimplex Biosciences, Inc., Beijing, China) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Wang W.X., Jia R., Jin X.Y., Li X., Zhou S.N., Zhang X.N., Zhou C.B., Wang F.S, & Fu J. (2023). Serum cytokine change profile associated with HBsAg loss during combination therapy with PEG-IFN-α in NAs-suppressed chronic hepatitis B patients. Frontiers in Immunology, 14, 1121778.