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. 2011 Feb 27;3(2):56-60.
doi: 10.4254/wjh.v3.i2.56.

A mutation of the start codon in the X region of hepatitis B virus DNA in a patient with non-B, non-C chronic hepatitis

Kiyotaka Fujise  1 , Keiko Tatsuzawa, Midori Kono, Sadayori Hoshina, Akihito Tsubota, Minoru Niiya, Yoshihisa Namiki, Norio Tada, Hisao Tajiri
Affiliations

A mutation of the start codon in the X region of hepatitis B virus DNA in a patient with non-B, non-C chronic hepatitis

Kiyotaka Fujise et al. World J Hepatol. .

Abstract

There are cases of hepatitis involving occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in which, even though the HB surface antigen (HBsAg) is negative, HBV-DNA is detected by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We conducted a sequence analysis of the entire HBV region in a case of non-B non-C chronic hepatitis in a 46-year-old female. A diagnosis of non-B non-C chronic hepatitis was made. Although HBV markers, such as HBs antibody (anti-HBs), anti-HBc, HBeAg and anti-HBe, were negative, HBV-DNA was positive. Nested PCR was performed to amplify the precore region of HBV-DNA and all remaining regions by long nested PCR. Sequence analysis of the two obtained bands was conducted by direct sequencing. Compared with the control strains, the ATG (Methionine) start codon in the X region had mutated to GTG (Valine). It is assumed that a mutation at the start codon in the X region may be the reason why HBV markers are negative in some cases of hepatitis that involve occult HBV infection.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Mutation; Non-B non-C chronic hepatitis; Occult infection; X region.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the preX and X regions. DNASISR gene analysis software was applied to compare the base sequence with the sequences of already registered genomes of 4 hepatitis B virus strains: DQ478885, AP011098, AB367417 and AB246344[10-13], using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool.
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