• DOI:10.3851/IMP2938
• Corpus ID: 13154527

HBV Carrying Drug-Resistance Mutations in Chronically Infected Treatment-Naive Patients

@article{GomesGouva2015HBVCD,
  title={HBV Carrying Drug-Resistance Mutations in Chronically Infected Treatment-Naive Patients},
  author={Michele Soares Gomes-Gouv{\^e}a and Ariana Carolina Ferreira and Rosa Isabel Sabença Teixeira and Jose R. Andrade and Adalgisa S P Ferreira and Lena MF Barros and Rosamar EF Rezende and Ana CS Santos Nastri and Andrea G. B. Leite and Leonora Z Piccoli and Josiane Galvan and Simone Rss Conde and Manoel CP Soares and Dimas Alexandre Kliemann and Dennis Armando Bertolini and Aline SO Kunyoshi and Andr{\'e} Castro Lyra and Marcio K. Oikawa and Luciano Vieira de Araujo and Flair Jos{\'e} Carrilho and Maria C Mendes-Correa and Jo{\~a}o Renato Rebello Pinho},
  journal={Antiviral Therapy},
  year={2015},
  volume={20},
  pages={387 - 395}
}

• M. Gomes-Gouvêa, A. C. Ferreira, +19 authors J. R. Pinho
• Published 1 May 2015
• Biology, Medicine
• Antiviral Therapy

Background Nucleoside/nucleotide analogue (NA) treatment causes selection pressure for HBV strains carrying mutations conferring NA resistance. Drug-resistance mutations occur in the reverse transcriptase (RT) region of the HBV polymerase gene and spontaneously arise during viral replication. These mutations can also alter the hepatitis B surface (HBs) protein and in some cases reduce binding to HBs antibodies. The spread of NA-resistant HBV may impact the efficacy of antiviral treatment and hepatitis B immunization programmes. In this study, we used direct sequencing to assess the occurrence of HBV carrying known mutations that confer NA resistance in the largest cohort of treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) to date. Methods HBV DNA samples isolated from 702 patients were sequenced and the RT region subjected to mutational analysis. Results There was high genetic variability among the HBV samples analysed: A1 (63.7%), D3 (14.5%), A2 (3.3%), A3 (0.1%), B1 (0.1%), B2 (0.1%), C2 (0.9%), D1 (0.9%), D2 (4.6%), D4 (5.1%), D unclassified sub-genotype (0.7%), E (0.6%), F2a (4.6%), F4 (0.4%) and G (0.4%). HBV strains harbouring mutations conferring NA resistance alone or combined with compensatory mutations were identified in 1.6% (11/702) of the patients. Conclusions HBV strains harbouring resistance mutations can comprise the major population of HBV quasispecies in treatment-naive patients. In Brazil, there is a very low frequency of untreated patients who are infected with these strains. These findings suggest that the spread and natural selection of drug-resistant HBV is an uncommon event and/or most of these strains remain unstable in the absence of NA selective pressure.