Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the infectious agent of both acute and chronic hepatitis. HBV exists in multiple genotypic variants that differ in their capacity to become persistent chronic infections and in their clinical manifestations, including hepatocellular carcinoma. The 8 genotypes (A-H) of HBV show a specific worldwide geographic distribution and are correlated with different disease cours...

 Abstract Background: Investigators were suspicious of tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate (YMDD) mutations occurred only in patients who were treated by lamivudine. However, YMDD mutations of hepatitis B virus gene (HBV DNA) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) untreated with antiviral medicines was reported in some studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate YMDD mutations in Ira...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Quantitative HBsAg has been recognized to assist in the management of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, its role in disease monitoring of HBeAg-negative patients remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal HBsAg change in HBeAg-negative carriers with HBV genotype B or C infection. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study conducted in a uni...

Infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a worldwide public health problem. Chronic HBV infection with high viral replication may lead to cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma. Mutant HBV strains, such as the HBV A1762T/G1764A double mutant, have been associated with poor prognosis and higher risk of the patient for developing cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma. This study analyzed th...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a small DNA virus with a compact genomic organization. All HBV proteins identified to date have been encoded by unspliced HBV RNAs. Spliced HBV RNAs have been described, but their functions are unknown. We show here that a singly spliced HBV RNA encodes a novel HBV protein in vivo. This HBV splice-generated protein (HBSP) corresponds to the fusion of a part of the vir...

The role of genotype mixture and subgenotypes remains controversial in determining the clinical outcome of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We aimed to determine their role on the development and the recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV genotypes, serum viral load and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion were determined in 462 HCC patients, 234 chronic hepatitis p...

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases globally. It has been estimated that there are 350 million chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers worldwide. The prevalence of chronic HBV infection varies geographically, from high (>8%), intermediate (2-7%) to low (<2%) prevalence. HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B (e-CHB) and occult HBV infection are two special clinical entities, ...

Hepatitis B vaccination strategies may vary from country to country depending on hepatitis B virus (HBV) endemicity, predominant modes of infection, age of infection, and health care resources. In areas with high endemicity like Korea, transmission of virus from carrier mothers to infants during the perinatal period, and from other horizontal sources to infants and children, account for most ca...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Impaired T-cell reactivity is believed to be the dominant cause of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We characterized HBV-specific T-cell responses in chronic hepatitis B surface antigen carriers who received bone marrow from HLA-identical donors with natural immunity to HBV and seroconverted to antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen. METHODS T-cell reactivity to H...

INTRODUCTION Few studies have evaluated the factors involved in the spontaneous HBsAg seroclearance in patients with chronic hepatitis B (HBV) followed up on a long-term basis from areas with a low prevalence of HBV infection. We aimed to determine the rate of spontaneous HBsAg seroclearance and the factors related to it in patients with chronic HBV infection followed up at the Hepatitis Outpat...