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.
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.
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.
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.