Prospective Cohort Study on PEG-IFN-α-2b in Improving Clinical Cure Rate of Pediatric Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B

This study is a prospective, multicenter study. A total of 113 subjects (adolescent and pediatric patients with chronic hepatitis B virus \[HBV\] infection) were recruited and divided into a treatment group and an observation group. After collecting baseline data from both groups, the treatment group was administered pegylated interferon alfa-2b, while the observation group received no drug treatment or was treated with nucleos(t)ide analogs. Blood samples were collected at different follow-up time points to detect relevant indicators. By comparing the baseline data with follow-up data during treatment, indicators such as HBV DNA negativity rate, HBeAg seroconversion rate, and HBsAg clearance rate were observed in adolescent and pediatric patients with chronic HBV infection. This was done to evaluate whether pegylated interferon alfa-2b treatment improves the clinical cure rate in this patient population and to explore optimized antiviral treatment regimens for adolescent and pediatric patients with chronic HBV infection. Additionally, the immune response characteristics were compared between adolescent and pediatric patients with chronic HBV infection who achieved functional cure after pegylated interferon alfa-2b treatment and those who did not. This comparison aimed to investigate the immune mechanism underlying functional cure achieved by pegylated interferon alfa-2b in adolescent and pediatric patients with chronic HBV infection, as well as to identify plasma markers associated with treatment efficacy for predicting therapeutic outcomes.