Hepatitis B virus preS1 deletion is related to viral replication increase and disease progression.
AIM
To investigate the clinical implications of hepatitis B virus (HBV) preS1 deletion.


METHODS
We developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) that can detect four genotypes (wild type, 15-bp, 18-bp and 21-bp deletion). The PCR method was used in two cohorts of Korean chronic HBV subjects with genotype C infections. Cohort I included 292 chronic HBV subjects randomly selected from Cheju National University Hospital (Jeju, South Korea) or Seoul National University Hospital (Seoul, South Korea), and cohort II included 90 consecutive chronic HBV carriers recruited from Konkuk University Hospital (Seoul, South Korea); the cohort II patients did not have hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cirrhosis.


RESULTS
The method proposed in this study identified 341 of 382 samples (89.3%). Deletion variants were identified in 100 (29.3%) of the 341 detected samples. In both cohorts, the subjects with deletions had a significantly higher Hepatitis B virus e antigen (HBeAg)-positive seroprevalence [cohort I, wild (51.0%) vs deletion (75.0%), P < 0.001; cohort II, wild (69.2%) vs deletion (92.9%), P = 0.002] and higher HBV DNA levels [cohort I, wild (797.7 pg/mL) vs deletion (1678.9 pg/mL), P = 0.013; cohort II, wild (8.3 × 10(8) copies/mL) vs deletion (2.2 × 10(9) copies/mL), P = 0.049], compared to subjects with wild type HBV.


CONCLUSION
HBV genotype C preS1 deletion may affect disease progression in chronic HBV subjects through an extended duration of HBeAg seropositive status and increased HBV replications.
['Lee|Seoung-Ae|SA|', 'Kim|Ki-Jeong|KJ|', 'Kim|Hong|H|', 'Choi|Won-Hyuk|WH|', 'Won|Yu-Sub|YS|', 'Kim|Bum-Joon|BJ|']
D000328:Adult D018387:Codon, Initiator D004279:DNA, Viral D018450:Disease Progression D005260:Female D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer D017353:Gene Deletion D005838:Genotype D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens D006515:Hepatitis B virus D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic D006785:Hospitals, University D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010641:Phenotype D011498:Protein Precursors D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction D056910:Republic of Korea D012189:Retrospective Studies D014779:Virus Replication
Hepatitis B virus Genotype C Hepatocellular carcinoma Hepatitis B virus e antigen PreS1 start codon deletion