title: Novel hepatitis B virus strain from a chimpanzee of Central Africa (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) with an unusual antigenicity of the core protein.
abstract: We and others have previously reported a hepatitis B virus (HBV)-like hepadnavirus strain which seemed to be indigenous to West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). After that, we obtained an HBsAg-positive serum sample from a chimpanzee from Central Africa, named Bassi, belonging to another subspecies (P. troglodytes troglodytes). The full-genome nucleotide sequence of the hepadnavirus from Bassi showed a significant difference (9-26%) from those so far reported from primates including humans, chimpanzees and gorillas, suggesting a novel strain. More interestingly, however, the core antigen (HBcAg) deduced from Bassi's sequence showed only 78-82% similarity to known primate strains at the amino acid level, whereas the other strains shared more than 90% similarity. HBcAg expressed from Bassi HBV failed to react with monoclonal antibodies that were directed at an epitope borne by codons 135-145 of HBcAg of conventional hepadnaviruses. This could explain why Bassi was negative for anti-HBc in a routine test. Here we report the novel HBV strain presumably indigenous to P. troglodytes troglodytes in Central Africa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Toshiba General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mishiro
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Prince
mesh_terms: D000350:Africa, Central; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012703:Serotyping; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral; D014758:Viral Core Proteins