The effect of thymopentin add-on in hepatitis B e antigen positive chronic hepatitis B after virus suppression by peginterferon plus entecavir therapy

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Thymopentin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Real-time PCR experiments were performed to test cccDNA in HepG2.2.15 cells. 45 HBeAg-positive CHB patients had been distributed into two groups randomly.

Why It Was Studied

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) was positively correlated with serological hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.

The researchers evaluated whether Thymopentin (TP5) and interferon (IFN-a) had a synergic effect on HBV cccDNA and the effect of TP5 addition therapy on HBsAg clearance in CHB patients.

Who Took Part

The study group was 23 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

Treatment group: 23 patients were treated with a 24-week TP5 on the basis of the treatment entecavir (ETV) and peginterferon alfa-2a (PegIFN alpha-2a).

Control group: 22 patients were treated with ETV and PegIFNa-2a.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Thymopentin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

What Was Measured

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) was positively correlated with serological hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) levels in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients.

The researchers evaluated whether Thymopentin (TP5) and interferon (IFN-a) had a synergic effect on HBV cccDNA and the effect of TP5 addition therapy on HBsAg clearance in CHB patients.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include DNA, Viral, Guanine, Hep G2 Cells, Hepatitis B e Antigens, Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis B, Chronic and Interferon-alpha.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Covalently closed circular DNA, HepG2.2.15 (RRID: CVCL_L855) hepatoma cells., Hepatitis B surface antigen, Thymopentin and Thymosin alpha 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Thymopentin in 23 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2019 (Cellular and molecular biology (Noisy-le-Grand, France)), a journal based in France.

More context: the Thymopentin compound page, all human trials.