title: Occult hepatitis B virus infection and S gene escape mutants in HIV-infected patients after hepatitis B virus vaccination.
abstract: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination is recommended for HIV patients. Despite the relative success of HBV vaccination, breakthrough infections can occur infrequently in patients, and it can be due to occult HBV infection, vaccine unresponsiveness and/or emergence of escape mutants. This study assessed the presence of occult HBV infection and S gene escape mutants in HIV-positive patients after HBV vaccination. Ninety-two HIV-positive patients were enrolled in this study, including 52 responders to HBV vaccine and 40 non-responders. All of the cases received HBV vaccine according to routine HBV vaccination protocols. The presence of HBV-DNA was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In HBV-DNA positive samples, the most conserved regions of S gene sequences were amplified by nested PCR and PCR products were sequenced. Occult HBV infection was detected in two cases. Glycine to arginine mutation at residue 145 (G145R) within the 'a' region of the S gene was detected in one of the occult HBV infection cases who was in the non-responder group. This study showed that the prevalence of occult HBV infection and vaccine escape mutants was low in our HBV-vaccinated HIV-positive patients in both responder and non-responder groups, so there was no alarming evidence indicating breakthrough HBV infection in our vaccinated HIV-positive cases.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Arezoo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aghakhani
authors.affiliation: Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Minoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohraz
authors.affiliation: Hepatitis and AIDS Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Aghasadeghi
authors.affiliation: Iranian Society for Support of Patients with Infectious Diseases, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Banifazl
authors.affiliation: Hepatitis and AIDS Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Rouhollah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vahabpour
authors.affiliation: Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
authors.forename: Afsaneh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karami
authors.affiliation: Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Foroughi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran amitisramezani@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Amitis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramezani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines
keywords: AIDS; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; S gene mutation; hepatitis B virus; occult hepatitis B virus infection; vaccination