Viral hepatitis related cirrhosis

Hepatitis is most commonly caused by infections from the viruses known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, or E. These viral infections stem either from consuming food and/or drinks contaminated with fecal matter (hepatitis A and E) or from contact with infected biofluids (hepatitis B, C, and D) (WHO). Excluding hepatitis A, which does not tend to cause long-term liver damage, infections from the other four viruses are some of the main causes of chronic liver disease (CLD) worldwide (Sharma A et al. (2024)). This is more pronounced in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where chronic hepatitis B, C, and D infections are the most common cause of CLD. While hepatitis B tends to be a short-term disease, it can lead to cirrhosis, cancer, and liver failure when it becomes chronic. As opposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C progresses into chronic disease in most cases. If not adequately treated, chronic hepatitis C may lead to hepatocellular carcinoma. The least common of all, hepatitis D is a satellite virus which only propagates togehter with hepatitis B. This co-infection can have severe complications, with an increased risk of chronically developing cirrhosis and liver cancer. While vaccination is the best prevention strategy for hepatitis B (Nelson NP et al. (2016)), there is currently no effective vaccine against hepatitis C or D. However, with timely diagnosis, antiviral therapy for hepatitis B, C, or D can hinder disease progression and increase survival chances. The most common way to diagnose hepatitis B, C, and D is through serological assays where either the viral antigen or the antibodies produced against it are detected (Nelson NP et al. (2016)).

Differential Abundance Analysis Results

This section presents the results of the differential protein abundance analysis, visualized through a volcano plot and summarized in the accompanying table for all three comparisons: 1) disease vs. healthy samples, 2) disease vs. diseases from the same class, and 3) disease vs. all other diseases.