Hepatitis may precede the occurrence of precore region mutation in hepatitis B virus genome during infection in young carriers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To understand when the mutation with a stop codon of precore region in hepatitis B virus genome occurs, the prevalence of the mutation of viral DNA clones propagated from sera of school‐age carriers was investigated with respect to hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)/anti‐HBe and sequential changes of mutants along HBeAg seroconversion were analyzed.Of 32 carriers aged 8–18 years, 14 HBeAg(+) patients had 2.2% mutant clones, whereas 8 patients with low titer anti‐HBe had a higher rate of 18.1% (P< 0.01) and the highest rate of 61.3% was found in 10 patients with high anti‐HBe titer (P< 0.001). By contrast, the amount of viral DNA decresed significantly in patients with anti‐HBe. Sequential analysis in six cases revealed three types of seroconversion with time difference of the emergence and increase of mutant clones.It is concluded that mutation occurs at a relatively young age and increases along time and/or HBeAg seroconversion. Hepatitis might precede or accelerate the emergence and increse of mutant population which might be predictive of sustained resolution of the disease.