No abstract

Background: In hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, an association between Precore/Core variations and liver disease progression has been suggested. In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of Precore/Core mutations in HBV-infected patients at various clinical stages. Methods: Totally, 73 HBV-infected patients including 26 inactive carriers, 20 chronic active and 27 patients with liver cirrhosis/hepatocellular carcinoma were randomly selected. The HBV DNA was extracted from the sera and subjected to nested PCR for amplification of pre-core/core region. The PCR product was then sequenced by Sanger method. Results: The stop codon of W/*28 was determined as the most prevalent mutation (55%) of pre-core region. The comparison of groups also demonstrated that core substitutions at residues of S21, E40 and I105 (<0.05) correlated with the development of inactive carrier state. Furthermore, the total substitutions in Th epitopes (117-131) were significantly higher in C/HCC group than IC and CA groups (P=0.001). Conclusion: Our results indicated a high frequency of W/*28 mutation in HBV studied patients. Moreover, variations including S21, E40 and I105 and R151 that were mapped onto cellular epitopes might be related to inactive state development.