Background/aims: Antiviral monotherapy is recommended for hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) treatment. Although considered superior to interferon-α in several respects, nucleotide/nucleoside analog (NA) monotherapy has not been studied. This metaanalysis evaluates the efficacy and safety of NA monotherapy for treating HBV-GN.
Methods: We searched for controlled clinical trials of NA monotherapy for HBVGN in the MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Chinese BioMedical Literature on disc, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases. Primary outcome measures were proteinuria remission, HBV-DNA negative conversion rate, and hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) clearance. Secondary outcome measures were variations in proteinuria, serum albumin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and serum creatinine (Scr).
Results: Ten trials involving 325 patients were included: four randomized controlled trials, two cohort clinical trials, and four self-controlled studies. Based on the fixed-effects model, we found significant proteinuria remission rate improvement in the NA group (relative risk (RR): 3.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.99 â 6.50), negative conversion rate of HBV-DNA (RR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.55 â 3.13), and clearance of HBeAg (RR: 4.49, 95% CI: 1.29 â 15.67). Improvement in ALT (mean difference (MD): 56.60, 95% CI: 50.41 â 62.79) was found with the fixedeffects model, and a slight decrease in Scr (MD: 25.25, 95% CI: â17.11 â 67.61, p = 0.24) was shown.
Conclusions: HBV-GN proteinuria remission with elevated serum albumin, decreased HBV replication, and improved HBeAg clearance could be achieved using NA monotherapy. Furthermore, NA monotherapy may protect renal function in HBV-GN patients by preventing Scr elevation.