title: A family cluster of an immune escape variant of hepatitis B virus infecting a mother and her two fully immunized children.
abstract: A hepatitis B virus (HBV) immune escape variant which results from a substitution of glycine by arginine at position 145 (arginine-145) in the immunodominant neutralization epitope of the S protein was found to infect one child in a seroepidemiologic survey of 1,812 vaccinated children. The child's mother and a younger brother were also infected by the same HBV variant, despite a greater than accepted level of protective antibody (anti-HBV surface antigen) in both the index child (30 mIU/ml) and the brother (> 20,000 mIU/ml). Our findings suggest the perinatal or horizontal transmission of the arginine-145 HBV variant from mother to child, but the ability of this variant to propagate among the vaccinated children remains unknown.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology & Public Health, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Mau
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Chao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001120:Arginine / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000635:transmission*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017354:Point Mutation / Q000276:immunology; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D014765:Viral Vaccines; D001120:Arginine