Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes and CD4 Epitope Mutations in the Pre-core/core Region of Hepatitis B Virus in Chronic Hepatitis B Carriers in Northeast Iran

Overview

Journal Indian J Gastroenterol

Specialty Gastroenterology

Date 2017 Jul 26

PMID 28741237

Citations 1

Authors

Sareh Zhand

Alijan Tabarraei

Amineh Nazari

Abdolvahab Moradi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is vulnerable to many various mutations. Those within epitopes recognized by sensitized T cells may influence the re-emergence of the virus. This study was designed to investigate the mutation in immune epitope regions of HBV pre-core/core among chronic HBV patients of Golestan province, Northeast Iran.

Methods: In 120 chronic HBV carriers, HBV DNA was extracted from blood plasma samples and PCR was done using specific primers. Direct sequencing and alignment of the pre-core/core region were applied using reference sequence from Gene Bank database (Accession Number AB033559).

Results: The study showed 27 inferred amino acid substitutions, 9 of which (33.3%) were in CD4 and 2 (7.4%) in cytotoxic T lymphocytes' (CTL) epitopes and 16 other mutations (59.2%) were observed in other regions.

Conclusions: CTL escape mutations were not commonly observed in pre-core/core sequences of chronic HBV carriers in the locale of study. It can be concluded that most of the inferred amino acid substitutions occur in different immune epitopes other than CTL and CD4.

Citing Articles

Molecular Characterization of Near Full-Length Genomes of Hepatitis B Virus Isolated from Predominantly HIV Infected Individuals in Botswana.

Anderson M, Choga W, Moyo S, Bell T, Mbangiwa T, Phinius B Genes (Basel). 2018; 9(9).

PMID: 30205537 PMC: 6162474. DOI: 10.3390/genes9090453.

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