title: High prevalence of hepatitis B virus pre-s mutant in countries where it is endemic and its relationship with genotype and chronicity.
abstract: It has been reported that hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutants carrying mutations in the pre-S region can be found in infected patients. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of the HBV variant with the pre-S mutant in different geographic regions, including countries with low and high levels of endemic HBV infection, and analyzed the correlation with clinical findings. We examined 387 HBV DNA-positive serum samples from individuals among 12 countries, consisting of Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Korea, Nepal, Japan, Russia, Spain, United States, Bolivia, and Ghana. HBV pre-S mutants were detected in 71 (18.3%) of 387 serum samples tested. This mutant was the most prevalent in Vietnam (36%), followed by Nepal (27.3%), Myanmar (23.3%), China (22.4%), Korea (14.3%), Thailand (10.5%), Japan (7.7%), and Ghana (4.3%). In contrast, no case with this mutation was found in Russia, Spain, United States, and Bolivia. Among the HBV deletion mutations, 15.5% (11 of 71) occurred in the pre-S1 and 46.5% (33 of 71) in the pre-S2 regions. Eight (11.3%) cases had a mutation in both the pre-S1 and pre-S2 regions. In addition, a point mutation at the pre-S2 starting codon was observed in 19 (26.7%) cases. The detection rate of the HBV mutant in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly higher than in other patients (P < 0.05). Furthermore, these mutants were found more frequently in genotype B (25%) and genotype C (24.5%) than in the other genotypes (P < 0.05). Our results indicated that there was a high prevalence of HBV pre-S mutation in regions of endemic HBV infection in Asia. Furthermore, the pre-S mutation appeared to be correlated with hepatocellular carcinoma and HBV genotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tran Thien-Tuan
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Huy
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ushijima
authors.forename: Khin Maung
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Win
authors.forename: Pairoj
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luengrojanakul
authors.forename: Pradeep Krishna
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Shrestha
authors.forename: Zhao-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Andrei V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Smirnov
authors.forename: Teresa Casanovas
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Taltavull
authors.forename: Tetsutaro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sata
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood; D015611:Hepatitis B Virus, Duck / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015995:Prevalence; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; C077433:Pre-S protein, Duck hepatitis B virus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins