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PAGEpress, Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases, 1(11), p. e2019046, 2019

DOI: 10.4084/mjhid.2019.046

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Viral Load and Nucleotide Substitutions in Hepatitis B Viruses Derived From Chronic Hbv Patients

Journal article published in 2019 by Narjes Shokatpour, Maryam Vaezjalali, Graham R. Foster ORCID, Shahnaz Sali
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Background: Mutations in the S gene (HBsAg), precore (PC) and basic core promoter (BCP) of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) are correlated with a wide spectrum of diseases. This study assessed the frequency of mutations in the S gene, PC and BCP regions in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Methods: 104 CHB patients who visited Tehran Hepatitis centers, were included. The viral load of samples was determined based on the TaqMan method. Regions of the S gene, PC and BCP were amplified by the nested PCR. Positive PCR products were sequenced and analyzed. Results: Successfully sequenced S gene region revealed all the derived strains were genotype D, with the majority (90%) belonging to the ayw2 subtype, and the rest (9%) to the ayw1 subtype. The prevalence of mutations was found to be 51% and 18% in the HBsAg and MHR regions, respectively. 70% of amino acid changes within HBsAg occurred in different immune epitopes, of which 27% and 72% were located in B cell and Th epitopes, respectively. Successfully sequenced PC and BCP regions showed at least one mutation in 84.6% of the patients. The PC and BCP mutations were G1896A (61%), G1899A (23%), A1762T/G1764A (23%) and G1764T/C1766G (26%). None of the strains with A1762T/G1764A mutation carried the G1764T/C1766G mutant. Conclusions: Our results showed common mutations within HBsAg, occurring in immune epitopes, a high rate of G1896A mutations in the PC region, and a negative correlation between the emergence of A1762T/G1764A mutation and the G1764T/C1766G mutant in the BCP region.