{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T12:41:57Z","timestamp":1787316117076,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,28]],"date-time":"2021-01-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1611792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Progetti di ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN)  - 2015","award":["201572SHXJ"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["201572SHXJ"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently-closed-circular (ccc)DNA is the key molecule responsible for viral persistence within infected hepatocytes. The evaluation of HBV cccDNA is crucial for the management of patients with chronic HBV infection and for the personalization of treatment. However, the need for liver biopsy is the principal obstacle for the assessment of intrahepatic HBV cccDNA. In the last decade, several studies have investigated the performance of hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) as a surrogate of HBV cccDNA amount in the liver. In this meta-analysis, we collected 14 studies (1271 patients) investigating the correlation between serum HBcrAg and intrahepatic HBV cccDNA. Serum HBcrAg showed a high correlation with intrahepatic HBV cccDNA (r = 0.641, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.510\u20130.743, p &lt; 0.001). In a head-to-head comparison, we observed that the performance of HBcrAg was significantly superior to that of hepatitis B surface antigen (r = 0.665 vs. r = 0.475, respectively, p &lt; 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that the correlation between HBcrAg and intrahepatic HBV cccDNA was high, both in hepatitis B e antigen-positive and -negative patients (r = 0.678, 95% CI 0.403\u20130.840, p &lt; 0.001, and r = 0.578, 95% CI 0.344\u20130.744, p &lt; 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, the measurement of serum HBcrAg qualifies as a reliable non-invasive surrogate for the assessment of an intrahepatic HBV cccDNA reservoir.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics11020187","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,28]],"date-time":"2021-01-28T05:23:05Z","timestamp":1611811385000},"page":"187","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Hepatitis B Core-Related Antigen as Surrogate Biomarker of Intrahepatic Hepatitis B Virus Covalently-Closed-Circular DNA in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B: A Meta-Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0529-9481","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gian Paolo","family":"Caviglia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7245-4445","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angelo","family":"Armandi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6518-7089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chiara","family":"Rosso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9421-3087","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Davide Giuseppe","family":"Ribaldone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3438-0649","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rinaldo","family":"Pellicano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Gastroenterology, Citt\u00e0 della Salute e della Scienza di Torino-Molinette Hospital, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6070-6716","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sharmila","family":"Fagoonee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging (CNR), Molecular Biotechnology Center, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2313","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(18)31865-8","article-title":"Chronic hepatitis B virus infection","volume":"392","author":"Seto","year":"2018","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2017). 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