TIGIT-expression on natural killer cell subsets is an early indicator of alleviating liver inflammation following bulevirtide treatment in chronic hepatitis D

Background & aims: Bulevirtide (BLV) is a novel and the only approved treatment option for patients with chronic hepatitis D (CHD). BLV alleviates liver inflammation already early during treatment when only minor HDV RNA changes are observed. We hypothesized that BLV-treatment may influence immune cells in CHD patients and performed a high-resolution analysis of natural killer (NK) cells before and during BLV-therapy. Methods: BLV-treated CHD patients (n=20) from a single-center cohort were longitudinally analyzed for clinical, molecular, and virological parameters. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were studied at baseline (BL), therapy weeks 3 (TW3) and 48 (TW48) by spectral flow cytometry. Healthy donors (HD), chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients after direct-acting antivirals (DAA)-treatment and patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were used as controls. Results: Overall NK cell frequencies remained stable during BLV-treatment. However, biochemical responders (BR) showed distinct NK cell immunophenotypic features before and during therapy. TIGIT-expression increased on CD56 dim and CD56 bright NK cells during the course of BLV-treatment and inversely correlated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels in CHD but not CHC or CHB patients. High frequencies of TIGIT - CD57 + CD56 dim NK cells at BL and low levels during therapy were indicative of a biochemical response. Conclusions: We here suggest that lacking the expression of the immune checkpoint inhibitor TIGIT on NK cell subtypes may be a hallmark of liver inflammation in HDV infection. BLV-therapy is associated with a reappearance of TIGIT on these cells, which may be one mechanism of why liver enzymes rapidly improve during therapy.