Hepatitis B virus genome variability and disease progression: the impact of pre-core mutants and HBV genotypes

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1386-6532(05)80015-0Get rights and content

Abstract

The hepatitis B virus (HBV), a member of the Hepadnaviridae family, is prone to mutations due to its asymmetric replication via reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate. The estimated mutation rate of the hepadnavirus genome is ⩾2 × 104 base substitutions/site/year. This mutation rate is approximately 100 times higher than that of other DNA viruses but between 100 and 1000 times lower than that of RNA viruses. Analyses of both naturally occurring viral variants and in vitro mutagenesis studies have identified some mutations that have a role in viral latency, pathogenesis of liver disease, immune escape, and resistance to antiviral therapy.

References (33)

Cited by (51)

  • Viral Hepatitis

    2023, Manson's Tropical Diseases, Fourth Edition
  • Novel hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase mutations in patients with sustained viremia despite long-term tenofovir treatment

    2022, Journal of Clinical Virology
    Citation Excerpt :

    In 2020, we also detected a small population of around 20% carrying both mutations in the spacer region and an 8 nucleotide deletion in the X protein leading to a nonsense frame and truncation of the X protein in the C-terminal Zinc finger motif. Mutation accumulation analyzed in the clones revealed a mutation rate of 3.1 × 10−4 substitutions/site/year (Supplementary Figure 3), similar to what has been shown previously [15]. Patient 2, a 57-year old male born in Denmark, was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HBeAg positive CHB (genotype A) in 1996, with presumed sexual transmission.

  • Acute and Chronic Hepatitis

    2020, Pediatric Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, Sixth Edition
View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text