{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]],"date-time":"2026-01-01T05:21:32Z","timestamp":1767244892345,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,29]],"date-time":"2025-12-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1766966400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["81860595"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81860595"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Guangxi Key Research and Development Project","award":["2018AB59002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018AB59002"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["CIMB"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Immunization is the most effective way to prevent transmission of the hepatitis B virus. However, about one-quarter of hepatitis B vaccinees (HepB vaccinees) aged around 18 years have lost their immune memory. What is responsible for the loss? Five subjects who became asymptomatic HBsAg carriers after anti-HBs seroconversion and ten controls who were negative for both HBsAg and anti-HBs were recruited from individuals born in 1987 and vaccinated at birth. scRNA-seq was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells, including library preparation, sequencing, quality control and filtering, normalization, dimensionality reduction, clustering, cell type annotation, differential expression analysis and trajectory analysis. Twelve cell types and nine subpopulations of T cells were identified. No significant differences in the proportions of cell types and subpopulations were found between cases and controls. The expression levels of immune memory-related genes, IL7R in total T cells and BACH2 in naive CD4+ T cells and naive CD8+ T cells, were significantly downregulated in the cases (p = 2.2 \u00d7 10\u2212308, 3.31 \u00d7 10\u221227 and 9.41 \u00d7 10\u2212100, respectively). IL7R is expressed throughout cellular development, while BACH2 is expressed only in the early stage of cellular development. Downregulation of the IL7R and BACH2 in T cells is associated with immune memory loss, identifying them as candidate genes for future functional studies to explore their potential role in the loss of immune memory. This could inform adjuvant design if a causal mechanism is firmly established.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cimb48010047","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,31]],"date-time":"2025-12-31T16:08:00Z","timestamp":1767197280000},"page":"47","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Downregulated Expression of the IL7R and BACH2 Genes Is Associated with Immune Memory Loss in Adults Vaccinated Against HBV at Birth"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"48","author":[{"given":"Ge","family":"Zhong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhi-Hua","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mei-Lin","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"},{"name":"School of Preclinical Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xue-Yan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Li-Ping","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qin-Yan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lu-Juan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yu-Bi","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"},{"name":"School of Preclinical Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xue","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"},{"name":"School of Preclinical Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rui-Min","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wei-Wen","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sha","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tim J.","family":"Harrison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Medicine, University College London Medical School, London WC1E 6BT, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8628-4213","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhong-Liao","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 18 Jin Zhou Road, Nanning 530028, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S13","DOI":"10.1002\/hep.22881","article-title":"Hepatitis B: The virus and disease","volume":"49","author":"Liang","year":"2009","journal-title":"Hepatology"},{"unstructured":"Polaris Observatory Collaborators (2023). 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