Mutations in hepatitis B virus core regions correlate with hepatocellular injury in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

Aim: To elucidate the relationship between the frequency of core mutations and the clinical activity of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver disease and to characterize the amino acid changes in the core region of HBV.

Methods: We studied 17 Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B according to their clinical courses and patterns of the entire core region of HBV.

Results: Amino acid changes often appeared in the HBV core region of the HBV gene in patients with high values of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or with the seroconversion from HbeAg to anti-HBe. The HBV core region with amino acid changes had high frequency sites that corresponded to HLA I/II restricted recognition epitopes reported by some investigators.

Conclusion: The core amino acid changes of this study occur due to influence of host immune system. The presence of mutations in the HBV core region seems to be important for predicting the clinical activity of hepatitis B in Chinese patients.

Figure 1

Comparison of core amino acid sequences between eAg-Po and eAg-Ne groups. (A) and between HA and LA groups (B). The top line is the core amino acid sequence of the HBV adr subtype. Core amino acid sequences of the HA group are C-1, C-2, C-3, C-11, C-16, C-22, C-29, C-35, C-36, and C-39, and those of the LA group are C-4, C-6, C-8, C-9, C-13, C-17, and C-21, Each dot denotes an identical match to the top sequence. An asterisk denotes that this codon is a stop codon. a,b,c are HLA class II-restricted T cell recognition sites. d, e, f are HLA class I-restricted CTL epitopes. g, h are the lesion exposed at the surface of HBcAg.