{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T14:57:46Z","timestamp":1786546666407,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783468800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>SARS-CoV-2\/HBV coinfections are increasingly common as SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. The interferon (IFN) therapy for HBV infection might also have antiviral effects against SARS-CoV-2. To understand the effects of IFN on SARS-CoV-2 infection, we compared the clinical characteristics between IFN-treated chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and nucleo(s)tide analogs (NAs)-treated CHB patients during their SARS-CoV-2 infection.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our cohort study enrolled patients with primary SARS-CoV-2 infections among IFN-treated and NAs-treated CHB patients during the Omicron wave in Shanghai, China, from December 7 2022 to January 23 2023. Clinical characteristics and self-reported acute symptoms during SARS-CoV-2 infection were collected by telephone questionnaire in January 2023.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The four most common symptoms were fever, fatigue, cough and sore throat among all enrolled participants, regardless of their treatment. Interestingly, Pegylated interferon-alpha (Peg-IFN\u03b1) treated CHB patients had a significantly higher proportion of asymptomatic infection than NAs-treated CHB patients (14.53% vs. 2.70%,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.002). Additionally, IFN-treated CHB patients had significantly lower duration of fever (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.018), less usage of antipyretics (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.0001), less occurrence of muscle and\/or joint pain (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.0001), less occurrence of headache (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.0001) and less occurrence of runny nose (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.0001) compared to NAs-treated CHB patients.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this real-world cohort of CHB patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the Omicron wave, Peg-IFN\u03b1 treatment was associated with milder self-reported acute clinical manifestations, including a higher proportion of asymptomatic infection and reduced occurrence of several common symptoms.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2026.1843714","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T05:58:15Z","timestamp":1783490295000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Peg-IFN\u03b1 reduces clinical severity but cannot prevent COVID-19 infection in chronic hepatitis B patients: a cohort study in China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Tiantian","family":"Hu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanghai Key Laboratory of Infectious Diseases and Biosafety Emergency Response, Department of Infectious Diseases, National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan 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