Thank you @ThomasTu . I really feel like being a part of this community has been a big help to me as I’m going through all of this. It’s nice to connect with other people who understand what I’m going through. My family and friends try to be understanding, but more often than not, it turns into hepatitis B education hour, because they just don’t know much about the disease or available treatments (much less how they work). Still, I know that everyone hopes that this treatment will work (I don’t know why they wouldn’t).
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Totally understand this. I don’t discuss my status with anyone because I get exhausted trying to explain something I don’t understand myself.There’s so much we don’t know about it be.I just complicated and confusing disease..
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Yes, completely agree. Sometimes I do use these sorts of conversations as a way to educate the public and fight against the preconceptions and prejudices people have (they have almost all been positive interactions in my case, as I’m pretty well educated in the matter), but it can get exhausting…
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I agree. In my experience, sharing my hep B status has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. The people around me seem to genuinely want the best for me (i.e. they want me to be healthy). I wouldn’t necessarily say that they feel sorry for me, but no one has freaked out and panicked, as if they might catch it by being in the same room as me.
Also, I got test results from last week, and my HBsAg is still undetectable! It has been that way since December 30th.
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Congratulation! Your HBsAg is still undetectable. Are you considering to try the Hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) quantitative test? Seroconversion is true golden grail of functional cure.
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@Dan yes, they test that every 8 weeks in this study. Last time I had it checked, it was still negative. I think I’m getting it tested again in 3 weeks from now. The doctor says that it can take months/years to develop antibodies, so I don’t exactly know what to expect.
My doctor and I both think that seroconversion to anti-HBs is better than just losing HBsAg (i.e. lower risk of reactivation in the future).
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I wish you the best. Hope TheVacB have good result and can help stimulate the antibody.
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@Dan I’m not on TherVacB.
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@et5656
Congrats!
GSK Peb is a medicine I have in mind later this year.. hope FDA gives them final clearance!!…
My doctor @rgish told me will consider to see if I am a good candidate… my HBSAG level is 877iu/ml … reduced by 50% in less than 2 years …
Fingers crossed!!
This platform is so helpful and we should all contribute to the cause!!
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Okay, so today I got some more test results, and I’ve officially been HBsAg negative for over 3 months now! I had my antibodies checked a few weeks ago, and I unfortunately still don’t have any. I’m still hoping I’ll start to get some. My ALT is almost back down to normal now. It has been taking quite a long time to come down since my flare. We hope it could be a sign that my immune system is working on clearing out the virus.
I feel more positive about this treatment potentially working for me than how I felt 3 months ago. I know it’s still not a guarantee of success, but at least it’s something.
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Hello et55656
This is excellent news!. Acknowledge things need to happen in stages. To develop antibodies would be further great news, essentially the holy grail.
Wishing you a great outcome!
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Dear @et5656,
I join in with everyone else congratulating you on your great results! Thank you for sharing your experiences and providing hope for everyone in the forum!
TT
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Dear @et5656,
What was your HBsAg level before Bepi Dosing?
@Nawab Around 400. It was actually fluctuating quite a lot between low/mid 300s to low/mid 400s.
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GSK peb is soon to release the data …
How many people people participated that are in this forum .. @et5656 congrats!!
I hope results are better and stronger!!
What you guys thinking about results???
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Update: Some of my lab results were delayed, but I’ve been HBsAg negative for 4.5 months now. It’s actually been 5 months since I stopped bepirovirsen, but the quantitative HBsAg takes a bit longer to come back than the qualitative version. Still no anti-HBs. Does anyone know why people who clear acute HBV infection usually get anti-HBs within 1-4 months of losing surface antigen, but then when chronic patients lose HBsAg, seroconverting with antibodies can take years?
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Hi, I haven’t seen any data on anti-HbsAg levels in the GSK B-United Study, although I don’t have a full paper access to the new NEJM paper. Was testing anti-HbsAg even part of the follow up? Has seroconversion ever observed with Bepi?
Ace
Ace
@Ace The data presented on Thursday was for the B-Well study. The B-United study is still ongoing and doesn’t have data yet. I do have access to the full NEJM paper on the B-Well study. They did test anti-HBs, and this is what it says. I’m not sure if the numbers are for people who developed surface antibody at any time during the study, or if it’s people who were surface antibody positive at the end of the study.
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This looks promising. Thanks for sharing!
Ace
Hi @et5656, it’s likely due to the levels of integrated HBV DNA that are formed over time during a chronic HBV infection. Integrated HBV DNA can continue to produce HBsAg and so the production of anti-HBs probably needs to be a lot more to get to that seroconverted state than after an acute infection when there’s not that much integrated HBV DNA around.
Thomas
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