BACKGROUND Besides vaccine escape or immune escape hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutants, naturally occurring and drug-induced mutations have been reported in the surface gene (S-gene) of HBV. AIM To investigate the frequency and profile of naturally occurring S-gene mutants and the influence of long-term lamivudine therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). MATERIALS AND METHODS 57 pati...

CASE REPORT A patient is described who developed hepatitis B virus (HBV) reinfection five months following liver transplantation. Failure of hepatitis B immunoglobulin prophylaxis was associated with the emergence of mutations. HBV gene sequencing identified nucleotide substitutions associated with amino acid changes, one within the major hydrophilic region (MHR) of the HBV surface antigen at a...

Case report—A patient is described who developed hepatitis B virus (HBV) reinfection five months following liver transplantation. Failure of hepatitis B immunoglobulin prophylaxis was associated with the emergence of mutations. HBV gene sequencing identified nucleotide substitutions associated with amino acid changes, one within the major hydrophilic region (MHR) of the HBV surface antigen at a...

conclusions the distribution of amino acid mutations as well as the ratio between missense and silent nucleotide mutations (dn/ds) showed that a narrowly focused immune pressure had already been on the surface protein (especially ctl epitopes) which led to the emergence of escape mutants in these patients who were in tolerance phase of chronicity. materials and methods the surface genes from 17...

BACKGROUND Some reports have documented the coexistence of Hepatitis B surfage Antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HBsAg antibodies (HBsAb) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), often in the absence of amino acid substitutions in the HBsAg sequences of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) genome able to explain an immunological escape variant.HBV genome has a very compact coding organization, with four parti...

Mutations in the human hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome contribute to its escape from host immune surveillance and result in persistent infections. The aim of this study was to characterize the molecular variations of the surface gene and protein in chronically-infected patients from the southern part of Iran. The surface genes from 12 HBV chronic carriers were amplified, sequenced and subsequent...

occult hepatitis b (ohb), or persistent hepatitis b virus (hbv) viremia in surface-antigen-hbsag-negative patients, has been recognized as a medical concern during the last decade. the exact magnitude, pathogenesis and clinical relevance of ohb are unclear. this review organizes the published data on ohb and presents an overview of the current hypotheses on ohb's pathogenesis and clinical relev...

Background and Objective: The drug resistance mutations are key elements in the failure of long-term treatment of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. The mutation in the YMDD motif in the P gene of HBV is the most critical factor in antiviral drug (especially lamivudine) resistance. This study aimed to assess the YMDD motif and other polymerase gene mutati...

background co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and hepatitis b virus (hbv) is common due to shared routes of transmission, as reported approximately 10% of 33 million hiv-infected patients worldwide are chronically infected with hbv. mutations of hbsag especially within the “a” determinant could alter the antigenicity of the protein, causing failure of hbsag neutralization and ...