Table_1_Extended analysis on peripheral blood cytokines correlated with hepatitis B virus viral load in chronically infected patients – a systematic review and meta-analysis.docx

BackgroundHepatitis B Virus (HBV) can affect life quality. Monitoring and understanding the fluctuations of the HBV level of viremia related to the intricate immune activity of the host helps in the development of new treatment strategies and evaluation patterns. This meta-analysis presents the correlations between cytokines and the level of viremia in chronic HBV patients for a better comprehension of the immune mechanisms behind this infection.
MethodsWe used PRISMA guidelines for this meta-analysis. The databases assessed were PUBMED, WEB OF SCIENCE, SCOPUS, and Cochrane Library. ZOTERO and PlotDigitizer helped the systematic research process. We extracted information related to the correlations between cytokines and the HBV-DNA level. Effect measures included comparisons between standardized mean differences and correlation coefficients. We evaluated retrieved articles with the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS). The R 4.2.2 software displayed the statistical calculation and graphical representations.
ResultsFrom 58,169 records, we extracted 16 articles with 32 different cytokine determinations. The main interleukins included in detection panels were IL-10 and IL-21. The meta-correlation analysis comprised 1,199 chronic HBV patients. The standardized mean difference between cytokine levels in HBV patients and healthy controls was 0.82 (95% CI = [−0.19, 1.84], p = 0.11). We observed a significant, fair, pooled correlation coefficient between IL-10, IL-9, and the viral load (r = 0.52, 95% CI = [0.19, 0.85]).
ConclusionThis meta-analysis brings novelty because it gives a first rigorous systematic look at multiple studies with many cytokines. Our research approaches a debatable issue and gives a possible solution for settling controversies. Future studies can arise towards understanding the immune disruption in HBV and the development of new, improved assays for prognosis.

背景：乙型肝炎病毒（Hepatitis B Virus, HBV）可影响患者生活质量。监测并解析与宿主复杂免疫活性相关的HBV病毒血症水平波动，有助于开发新型治疗策略与评估方案。本荟萃分析旨在探讨慢性HBV感染者体内细胞因子与病毒血症水平的相关性，以深入理解该感染背后的免疫机制。
方法：本荟萃分析遵循PRISMA指南进行。检索数据库包括PubMed、Web of Science、SCOPUS及考克兰图书馆（Cochrane Library）。研究系统检索过程借助ZOTERO与PlotDigitizer完成。我们提取了与细胞因子及HBV-DNA水平相关性相关的研究数据，效应指标涵盖标准化均数差与相关系数的比较分析。采用纽卡斯尔-渥太华质量评价量表（Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale, NOS）对检索到的文献进行质量评估。统计计算与图表绘制均通过R 4.2.2软件完成。
结果：本研究从58169条检索记录中，最终纳入16篇文献，涉及32项不同的细胞因子检测指标。检测面板中涵盖的主要白介素为IL-10与IL-21。本次荟萃相关分析共纳入1199例慢性HBV感染者。慢性HBV感染者与健康对照者的细胞因子水平标准化均数差为0.82（95%置信区间[−0.19, 1.84]，p=0.11）。我们观察到IL-10、IL-9与病毒载量之间存在显著且中等强度的合并相关系数（r=0.52，95%置信区间[0.19, 0.85]）。
结论：本荟萃分析具有创新性，首次针对多细胞因子相关的多项研究开展了严谨的系统综述。本研究针对这一存在争议的议题展开探索，为解决相关争议提供了可行思路。未来可进一步开展研究，以解析HBV感染中的免疫紊乱机制，并开发用于预后评估的新型优化检测方法。