A novel model based on serum N‐glycan markers for evaluating stage of liver necroinflammation in treatment‐naïve chronic hepatitis B patients

Abstract

AbstractThis study aimed to establish a novel noninvasive model based on the serum N‐glycan spectrum for providing an objective value for determining the stage of liver necroinflammation related to chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. N‐glycan profiles of the sera of 295 treatment‐naïve CHB patients were analyzed. N‐glycan profiles were tested for different liver necroinflammation stages using DNA sequence‐assisted fluorophore‐assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis. A serum N‐glycan model named N‐glycan‐LI (NGLI) using support vector machine was selected to evaluate the classification of liver necroinflammation (G < 2 and G ≥ 2). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) was 0.898 (training set, n = 236) and 0.911 (validation set, n = 59) regardless of the stage of liver fibrosis (AUROC = 0.886 and 0.926, respectively, in S < 2 and S ≥ 2 group). The NGLI correspondingly had the highest specificity (SP) of 90.79% and negative predictive value of 92.00% in an inactive stage (including immune‐tolerant [IT] and inactive‐carrier [IC] stage), had the highest positive predictive value of 95.18% in stage immune‐active, and had the highest SP of 93.94% in grey zone IT + IC. N‐glycan profiles appear to correlate well with hepatic necroinflammation in CHB when compared with liver biopsy. The newly developed model appears to reliably predict liver damage in naïve‐treatment patients with CHB.