Aberrant expression and dysfunction of TLR 2 and its soluble form in chronic

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2015.03.004 0166-3542/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Abbreviations: ALT, alanine aminotransferase; CHB, chronic hepatitis B; CR, complete response; HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HC, healthy control; IC, inactive carrier; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; IT, immunotolerant; LdT, telbivudine; NCR, non-complete response; PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; peg-IFN-a-2a, pegylated interferon a-2a; sTLR2, soluble Toll-like receptor 2; TLR, Toll-like receptor; TNF-a, tumor necrosis factor a; WHV, woodchuck hepatitis virus. ⇑ Corresponding authors at: Hepatology Unit and Key Laboratory for Organ Failure Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 1838, North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, China. Tel.: +86 20 61641941. E-mail addresses: huangzuxiong215@hotmail.com (Z. Huang), gejunnf@foxmail. com (J. Ge), pangjinke2006@gmail.com (J. Pang), liuhongyan205628@163.com (H. Liu), chjj@smu.edu.cn (J. Chen), polinlbl@163.com (B. Liao), xhuang2000@ foxmail.com (X. Huang), zdaming@gmail.com (D. Zuo), sunjian@fimmu.com (J. Sun), mengji.lu@uni-due.de (M. Lu), xiaoyong.zhang@msn.com (X. Zhang), jlhousmu@163.com (J. Hou). 1 These authors contributed equally to this work. Zuxiong Huang , Jun Ge , Jinke Pang , Hongyan Liu , Jinjun Chen , Baolin Liao , Xuan Huang , Daming Zuo , Jian Sun , Mengji Lu , Xiaoyong Zhang a,e,⇑, Jinlin Hou a,e,⇑