Induction of Endogenous Cytokines by Traditional Chinese Medicine Leading to Reduction of Serum HBsAg Levels

傳統中醫藥誘生內源性細胞因子導致血清HBsAg水平之下降

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection continues to be a serious global health problem and current therapeutics seldom reach treatment endpoint of HBsAg seroclearance with or without Anti-HBs. In this report, it was observed that, formulated under the guiding principle of dynamic equilibrium of ying and yang, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection resulted in remarkable reduction of serum HBsAg levels. Clinical cytokine tests demonstrated that the patients who succeeded in having levels of serum HBsAg reduced were those tested to have endogenous cytokines IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF-α and/or TGF-β1 induced. Those cytokines are known to be able to trigger degradation of cccDNA, the HBV transcription template, in the nucleus of the infected hepatocyte noncytopathically. We conclude that TCM is a novel strategy to successfully treat chronic hepatitis B infection.

慢性 B 型肝炎病毒（HBV）感染持續為一種嚴重的世界性健康衛生問題，而 現有的治療方案鮮能達致清除血清 HBsAg，同時產生或未產生 Anti-HBs 的治療 終點。本報告觀察到在陰平陽謐指導原則下，傳統中醫藥（TCM）治療慢性 B 型 肝炎感染導致血清 HBsAg 水平顯著下降。細胞因子的臨床實驗表明血清 HBsAg 水平成功降低的病患即那些誘生了一種或多種內源性細胞因子 IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF-α 及 TGF-β1。而那些細胞因子已知能導致受感染肝細胞核中的 HBV 複製模 板 cccDNA 的降解，但不傷及肝細胞。我們因而論定 TCM 是一種能有效治療慢 性 B 型肝炎感染的新穎策略。