Fulminant reactivation of hepatitis B due to envelope protein mutant that escaped detection by monoclonal HBsAg ELISA

Lancet. 1995 Jun 3;345(8962):1406-7. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(95)92599-6.

Abstract

The detection of a fatal case of reactivation of hepatitis B, in a previously vaccinated Indonesian patient after withdrawal of chemotherapy for lymphoma, was delayed because HBsAg was negative in a widely used monoclonal-antibody-based ELISA. The serum was later found to be strongly reactive for HBsAg by the polyclonal radioimmunoassay and for HBV DNA. PCR sequencing revealed a substitution of arginine for glycine at position 145 of HBsAg in the major neutralising epitope cluster, the a determinant, as well as a 2-aminoacid insertion of asparagine and threonine between positions 122 and 123, immediately upstream of this determinant.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Hepacivirus / immunology
  • Hepatitis Antibodies / isolation & purification
  • Hepatitis B / virology*
  • Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / genetics*
  • Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / isolation & purification
  • Hepatitis B virus / genetics*
  • Hepatitis B virus / immunology
  • Hepatitis C Antibodies
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Viral Envelope Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Hepatitis Antibodies
  • Hepatitis B Surface Antigens
  • Hepatitis C Antibodies
  • Viral Envelope Proteins