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. 2018 Spring;11(2):131-137.

Characterization of the "a" determinant region of the hepatitis B virus genome in Iranian patients at different clinical phases of chronic infection

Sara Romani  1 , Seyed Masoud Hosseini  1 , Seyed Reza Mohebbi  2 , Andre Boonstra  3 , Armin Hosseini Razavi  2 , Afsaneh Sharifian  4
Affiliations

Characterization of the "a" determinant region of the hepatitis B virus genome in Iranian patients at different clinical phases of chronic infection

Sara Romani et al. Gastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench. 2018 Spring.

Abstract

Aim: To determine the distribution of important mutations of the "a" determinant region in the HBV genome among patients in different clinical phases of HBV infection.

Background: Variations in Hepatitis B infection not only change the outcome of the disease but also the symptoms from which the chronic HBV patients are suffering.

Methods: We have meticulously selected a total of 40 chronic HBV patients from four different subclasses of chronic HBV clinical phases including immune tolerant (IT), immune active (IA), inactive carrier (IC) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative (ENEG); 10 samples per each phase. Mutations of the "a" determinant region were identified using PCR-Direct sequencing method.

Results: 17 amino-acid substitutions at 12 positions inside the "a" determinant were identified in all forty samples; 3 mutations in the IT group, 6 mutations in the IA phase, 3 mutations in the IC patients and 5 mutations in the ENEG phase. Different substitutions were observed in all four clinical phases. The IA phase was the most variant group with the highest number of amino-acid substitutions.

Conclusion: These results did not reveal a strong pattern to distinguish different clinical phases of Chronic HBV infection, but there are some obvious differences regarding the number and position of mutations between these four clinical phases.

Keywords: Amino-acid substitution; Chronic hepatitis B infection; Clinical phases; “a” determinant region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Classification of chronic HBV patients per number of “a” determinant mutations and comparison of HBV viral load between individuals without any substitution and individuals carrying one or more substitution
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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