High prevalence of hepatitis B virus pre-s mutant in countries where it is endemic and its relationship with genotype and chronicity.
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.
Huy
Tran Thien-Tuan
TT
Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
Ushijima
Hiroshi
H
Win
Khin Maung
KM
Luengrojanakul
Pairoj
P
Shrestha
Pradeep Krishna
PK
Zhong
Zhao-Hua
ZH
Smirnov
Andrei V
AV
Taltavull
Teresa Casanovas
TC
Sata
Tetsutaro
T
Abe
Kenji
K
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
D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; C077433:Pre-S protein, Duck hepatitis B virus; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins