HEPATITIS B VIRUS IN CORDOBA: DESCRIPTION OF CIRCULATING GENOTYPES AND MUTANTS

GALLEGO F; CAEIRO L; TORRES, C; MARTÍNEZ WASSAF M; BALANGERO, M; PISANO MB; CONTIGIANI M; CAMPOS R; RÉ V.

Cordoba

Jornada; XIII JORNADAS DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA; 2012

Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, UNC

Introduction: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is classified into 10 genotypes (from A to J), which show geographical differentiation. Several reports have been demonstrated that the severity, the clinical outcome and the treatment response are influenced by certain genotypes. In addition, have been described mutations associated with seroconvertion of HBeAg, which is associated with viral replication, infectivity and disease progression.The precore G1896A mutation and/or the A1762T/G1764A double mutation in the basal core promoter (BCP) region directly modulate the expression of HBeAg. Objective: The aim of this work was to describe HBV genotypes distribution in Cordoba and to establish the frequency of the mutations described before. Materials and Methods: Fifty-five samples with ?s? antigen [HBs Ag (+)] were collected from patients living in Cordoba with acute or chronic infection. Ten patients were HIV/HBV coinfected. Genomic fragments of the S gen (which encodes for HBsAg) and the basal core promotor/precore regions were sequenced and amplified. The sequences were aligned with ClustalX v2.0 and edited with BioEdit v7.0.9.0 and Mega v4.0. Philogenetic analyses were performed using the maximum-likelihood method using PhyML v3.0, with the substitution model estimated by jModeltest v0.1.1, following the Akaike information criteria. Results: Forty-six samples were amplified. The phylogenetic analysis of the monoinfected patients with HBV results on 55,6% F; 33,3% A; 5,5% C; 5,5% B genotypes, while in the HIV/HBV co-infected group, the genotypes distribution was 70% A; 30% F. In regard to the mutations described, the G1896A mutation was more abundant than A1762T/G1764A double mutation (17,4% and 15,2% respectively). Conclusions: The genotypes prevalence in Cordoba is in agree with reports of other regions of Argentina, with high prevalence of genotype F, originative from America, and genotype A associated with the European immigration. The frequency of mutations that affects the HBeAg expression is similar with show in others reports in the country. The results highlight the need to incorporate molecular methodology in monitoring patients chronically infected with HBV.