Altered gut microbiota is associated with the formation of occult hepatitis B virus infection

Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a common blood transmission pathogen worldwide, can lead to viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other liver diseases. In particular, occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) may be caused by an immune response leading to suppressed virus replication. Gut microbiota can change the immunity status of the human body and, therefore, affect the replication of HBV. Thus, to identify whether there are differences in gut microbiota between HBV carriers and OBI carriers, we collected fecal samples from 18 HBV carriers, 24 OBI blood donors, and also 20 healthy blood donors as negative control. After 16S sequencing, we found that the abundance of