KAT8: A Promising Biomarker for the Prognosis of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) have a high short-term mortality. This study aims to explore the predictive value of KAT8 in ACLF. METHODS: In this study, a carbon tetrachloride/lipopolysaccharide/D-galactosamine-induced ACLF mouse model was established. In parallel, PBMCs were collected from a prospective cohort comprising patients with HBV-ACLF, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), HBV-related liver cirrhosis (LC), and healthy individuals (HI) to investigate the association between KAT8 expression and ACLF. RESULTS: In liver tissues from the ACLF animal model, the expression of KAT8 was significantly decreased. Meanwhile, in human PBMCs, KAT8 expression levels were significantly lower in the HBV-ACLF group than in HI, but higher than those in patients with CHB and HBV-related LC. Furthermore, survivors exhibited significantly higher KAT8 levels than non-survivors (all p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.001). KAT8 shows potential prognostic value for 28-day and 90-day mortality in HBV-ACLF, with AUROC values of 0.90 and 0.97, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: KAT8 may serve as a valuable biomarker for the prognosis prediction of patients with HBV-ACLF.