Serum WFA+‐M2BP levels for evaluation of early stages of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Background & Aims Accurate evaluation of liver fibrosis is crucial for predicting progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We assessed the utility of a novel fibrosis glycobiomarker Wisteria floribunda agglutinin‐positive Mac‐2‐binding protein (WFA+‐M2BP) for evaluating liver fibrosis and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection. Methods We enrolled 774 patients with chronic HBV infection, with or without fibrosis, diagnosed by liver biopsy/FibroScan. Patients who underwent liver biopsy (n = 297) were divided into training (n = 221) and validation (n = 76) groups. Serum WFA+‐M2BP values were measured and compared with FIB‐4 index, aspartate aminotransferase (AST)‐to‐platelet ratio (APRI) and AST‐to‐alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR) using receiver‐operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results Serum WFA+‐M2BP levels increased significantly with fibrosis progression (P < 0.0001). Area under the ROC curve of WFA+‐M2BP for diagnosing significant fibrosis was higher than that of FIB‐4 (P = 0.198), APRI (P = 0.017) and AAR (P < 0.001), with sensitivity and specificity in the training set of 60.5% and 79.8% and validation set of 59.5% and 82.1%, respectively. Serum WFA+‐M2BP levels were significantly correlated with FibroScan values (P < 0.0001) and improved the accuracy of FibroScan in assessing significant fibrosis. Changes in WFA+‐M2BP levels were parallel with those in FibroScan values during nucleot(s)ide analogues therapy in patients with chronic HBV infection. Conclusions WFA+‐M2BP is an accurate serum indicator for assessing early stages of liver fibrosis and may monitor regression of fibrosis during the treatment of chronic HBV infection. WFA+‐M2BP provides a simple and reliable alternative or complementary method to liver biopsy and FibroScan.