According to the World Health Organization, about 2 billion persons worldwide have been infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). More than 350 million are chronically infected worldwide with a high risk of developing liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (representing 1million deaths per year). The epidemiology of HCC is peculiar with both geographic and temporal patterns of incidenc...

Introduction and objective: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a member of Hepadnaviridae and a major causative agent of chronic and acute hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Genotype determination of HBV is based on PCR-RFLP and sequencing of genome of the virus. The genotype formation is mainly due to mutations of HBV precore, S, and YMDD (tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate ...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants belong to different genotypes, A-J, whose worldwide distribution is linked with geography, probably because viral spread was associated with ancient human migrations. HBV genotype G (HBV-G) is an aberrant genotype with little sequence divergence, suggesting a recent origin. HBV-G is strongly associated with certain risk groups such as intravenous drug...

The adw4 subtype of hepatitis B virus (HBV) belongs to a unique genomic group (genotype F) representing the original HBV strains from the New World. Data regarding the prevalence of this subtype among HBV carriers in South America are, however, scarce, and those concerning HBV genotype F are based on only a few samples from Latin America. In this study, serum samples were obtained from 141 hepa...

BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection affects up to 7% of the European population. Specific HBV genotypes are associated with rapid progression to end-stage liver disease and sub-optimal interferon treatment responses. Although the geographic distribution of HBV genotypes differs between regions, it has not been studied in Switzerland, which lies at the crossroads of Europe. ME...

Background. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) remains a severe global public health concern. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be divided into 8 genotypes with different geographical distribution and virological features. We demonstrated genotypes B and C prevalent in southern and northern China, respectively, had divergent genotype-dependent amino acid polymorphisms and variations in reverse transcriptase (...

BACKGROUND Lamivudine (LMV), as the preferred oral drug for use in treatment of HBV, always results in development of resistance mutations after long-term treatment. In this study we investigated chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in southern China to determine whether different HBV genotypes affect the incidence of LMV resistance mutations. MATERIAL/METHODS The study recruited 185 CHB patien...

BACKGROUND Accurate and personalized molecular virological diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is crucial for individualized selection of patients for antiviral therapy in Romania. OBJECTIVES We aimed to investigate HBV mutations in Romanian patients with chronic HBV infection, also to match HBV genotypes with HBV mutations identified and clinical outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS T...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes and subgenotypes may vary in geographical distribution and virological features. Previous investigations, including ours, showed that HBV genotypes B and C were respectively predominant in South and North China, while genotypes A and D were infrequently detected and genotype G was not found. In this study, a novel A/C/G intergenotype was identified in patients ...

To the Editor Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been classified into 8 major genotypes A to H, with an intergenotypic diversity of at least 8% in the full genome sequence. Genotypes A to D are the most common worldwide, with genotype A predominant in Western Europe, North America and Africa, genotypes B and C most frequent in Asia, and genotype D present in Mediterranean countries [1] . There is incr...