Effect of Tenofovir on gut microbiota and inflammatory factors in HBV-infected individuals

Abstract Background Studies have found dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected individuals. Tenofovir dipivoxil (TDF) is one of the preferred oral antiviral drugs for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but the effect of TDF on gut microbiota and inflammatory factors remains unexplored. Methods In this study, we prospectively collected stool samples from unmedicated HBV patients and CHB patients treated with TDF. Gut microbiota and inflammatory factors were studied in 42 healthy subjects (HC group), 109 HBV-infected individuals, including 48 CHB patients who did not take nucleoside analogue drugs (No-NAs group) and 61 CHB patients who took TDF (TDF group). Results 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that TDF treatment caused significant alterations in intestinal microbiota in HBV-infected individuals, however, HBV-infected individuals could not fully recover from intestinal microbiota dysbiosis. The relative abundance of Bacteroidota decreased gradually from HC group to No-NAs and TDF groups. Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were more abundant in No-NAs and TDF groups than in the HC group. The relative abundance of Fusobacteriota was significantly higher in the No-NAs group than those in HC group. At the genus level, Dialister, Eubacterium_hallii_group, Halomonas, Collinsella, Sphingomonas, Xanthomonadaceae_unclassified, and Rhizobiaceae_unclassified were found to be overrepresented, while the abundances of Bacteroides and Fusobacterium were significantly decreased in No-NAs and TDF groups. Conclusions This study showed that TDF treatment significantly improved gut microbiota dysregulation. In addition, we did not observe a significant improvement in serum inflammatory factor levels, which may be related to the relatively short duration of TDF administration in this study.