Genetic heterogeneity in the precore region of hepatitis B virus in hepatitis B e antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B Patients: Spontaneous seroconversion and interferon-induced seroconversion

✍ Scribed by Tatsunobu Karasawa; Yoshio Aizawa; Mikio Zeniya; Akira Kuramoto; Gotaro Toda; Takuji Shirasawa

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 860 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890450404

✦ Synopsis

To elucidate the relationship between the clinical severity of chronic liver disease and the precore mutations in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers, mutations were investigated in the precore region of HBV DNA in 20 chronic hepatitis B patients who seroconverted either spontaneously or after the administration of a-interferon (IFN), and 5 asyrnptomatic carriers. The precore mutation with a stop codon at nucleotide 1896 was found in all patients, irrespective of the histology and in all asymptomatic carriers. The second mutation at nucleotide 1899 was found in 40% of cases studied but always followed by the first mutation at nucleotide 1896. The mixed viral infection of precore mutant and wild-type HBV virus was found in 40% of seroconverted cases after IFN treatment and in sera of HBV carriers obtained within a year after the spontaneous seroconversion. These data suggest that the precore mutants prevail over wild-type HBV in all HBeAg-negative HBV carriers within several years after the seroconversion, but their prevalence could not confine the clinical severity of chronic liver disease.