Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical feature and responses to antiviral therapy in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)co-infection. Methods 40 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 24 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and 17 patients with CHB/CHC were enrolled in our hospital between January 2020 and December 2021, receiving entevavir (ETV), sophobuvir/vipatavir or combination of ETV and sophobuvir/vipatavir for 48 weeks or 24 weeks. Entecavir therapy continued after finishing anti-HCV treatment, and all patients were followed-up for 24 weeks. Serum HBV DNA and HCV RNA loads were detected, and peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets were determined by FCM. Results Of 17 patients with CHB/CHC, there were family HBV infection history in 41.2%, HCV infection history in 23.6%, blood transfusion history in 17.6% and drug abuse in 17.6%, and the clinical phenotypes included CHB in 70.6%, compensated and decompensated liver cirrhosis in 23.6% and 5.8%; at admission, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in patients with CHB/CHC were both significantly greater than in those with CHB or with CHC, while serum HBV DNA load were much lower than in patients with CHB and serum HCV RNA load were much lower than in those with CHC(P＜0.05); at end of 24 week follow-up, serum ALT/AST levels in patients with CHB/CHC were still much higher than in those with CHB or in with CHC(P＜0.05), however, there were no significant differences as respect to serum viral loads among the three groups (P>0.05); before and after antiviral treatment, percentages of peripheral blood CD3⁺ and CD4⁺ cells as well as ratio of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ cells in patients with CHB/CHC were significantly lower than in those with CHB or with CHC(P＜0.05); at end of 24 week follow-up, there were no virological breakthrough, or disease relapse in the three groups. Conclusion The clinical discrepancy in patients with CHB and CHC as compared to those with CHB or CHC might be slight, and response to antiviral therapy is promising. The long-term outcomes need further investigation.

Key words: Chronic hepatitis B, Chronic hepatitis C, Co-infection, Antiviral therapy