THE PRECORE CORE PROMOTER MUTANT (T(1762)A(1764)) OF HEPATITIS-B VIRUS - CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE AND AN EASY METHOD FOR DETECTION
THE PRECORE CORE PROMOTER MUTANT (T(1762)A(1764)) OF HEPATITIS-B VIRUS - CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE AND AN EASY METHOD FOR DETECTION
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DOI：
10.1099/0022-1317-76-12-3159
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发表时间：
1995-12-01
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
MISHIRO, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
TAKAHASHI, K;AOYAMA, K;MISHIRO, S
Recently, a new hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutant with HBe antigen-negative phenotype has been characterized, in which one TATA box-like moth of the precore/core promoter had degenerated: most frequently by both A --> T and G --> A mutations at positions 1762 and 1764, respectively. The clinical significance of this mutant is as yet unknown. In our present study, the T-1762 A(1764) mutant was sought in sera from HBV-infected blood donors and chronic liver disease patients by directly sequencing a PCR-amplified region of HBV DNA. Also, because the A(1764) mutation generates a Sau3AI cleavage site (G (G) under bar TC --> G (A) under bar TC), we digested the PCR products with Sau3AI to see if cleavage would occur at this specific site. Our results mostly corroborated the earlier report but we found a higher-than-predicted frequency of HBe antigen-positive blood donors positive for the mutant (22%). The titres of HBe antigen in these mutant-positive sera were slightly decreased compared to the titres in wildtype HBV infection. In addition, these blood donors had relatively high (though within the normal range) serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, suggesting that the T-1762 A(1764) mutation could be used as a sensitive laboratory marker for insidious hepatitis in these otherwise 'asymptomatic' carriers. The Sau3AI assay, which is much more convenient than sequencing, was shown to be useful for the detection of the T-1762 A(1764) mutant in an extensive number of clinical samples.
