Novel mutation in Hepatitis B virus preventing HBeAg production and resembling primate strains.
Chronic carriers of hepatitis B infection often harbour virus strains with mutations in the precore region. These mutations are temporally associated with the development of HBeAg loss and seroconversion to anti-HBe. The most common precore mutation is a stop codon at position 1896, but other mutations leading to abolished HBeAg secretion have been described. Here, a novel precore mutation introducing a lysine in the precore position 28, a sequence shared by non-human primates but not by other human isolates, is described. However, the insertion causes a frame-shift preventing the expression of HBeAg by introducing a stop codon 5 aa downstream of the mutation. Analysis of the predicted RNA secondary structure indicates that the insertion could occur without fatally affecting the stability of the stem-loop encapsidation signal.
Ingman
M
M
Department of Infectious Diseases, Lund University, 22185 Lund, Sweden.
Lindqvist
B
B
Department of Infectious Diseases, Lund University, 22185 Lund, Sweden.
Kidd-Ljunggren
K
K
Department of Infectious Diseases, Lund University, 22185 Lund, Sweden.
D000818:Animals; D002353:Carrier State; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011323:Primates; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry*; D019562:Viral Load
D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens; D006513:Hepatitis B e Antigens; D012367:RNA, Viral