OBJECTIVE The hepatitis B virus (HBV)-polymerase region overlaps pre-S/S genes with high epitope density and plays an essential role in viral replication. We investigated whether genetic variation in the polymerase region determined long-term dynamics of viral load and the risk of hepatitis B progression in a population-based cohort study. METHODS We sequenced the HBV-polymerase region using ...

High incidence of HCC is mostly due to the combination of two major risk factors, chronic infection with hepatitis B (HBV) and/or C (HCV) viruses and exposure to the mycotoxin aflatoxin B(1), which induces a particular mutation at codon 249 in TP53 (R249S). Eight genotypes of HBV are diversely found in high and low incidence areas. Regardless of documented strong associations between TP53 R249S...

UNLABELLED Available data on prevalence of HCV genotypes in Poland are insufficient. The aim of the study was the analysis of distribution of HCV genotypes in Poland over the period of recent 10 years regarding the age of patients and the regions of the country. MATERIAL AND METHODS Analysis of HCV genotypes in Poland was carried out between 2003 and 2012, and included 14 651 patients from 22...

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified eleven leukocyte telomere length (LTL)-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Since LTL has been associated with risk of many malignancies, LTL-related SNPs may contribute to cancer susceptibility. To test this hypothesis in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we genotyped these eleven LTL-related...

The CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) delta 32 allele results in a nonfunctional form of the chemokine receptor and has been implicated in a variety of immune-mediated diseases. CCR5Δ32 may also predispose one to chronic liver disease or be linked with resistance to HBV infection.This study was undertaken to investigate any association between CCR5 polymorphism with resistance to hepatitis B or su...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is highly prevalent in China. To identify the genotypes of HBV in the southern Yunnan Province of China, full-length HBV genomes were extracted from 1 Dai and 4 Hani HBV carriers and linked with the pMD T-18 vector. For each patient, 3-10 clones were sequenced directly and a consensus sequence was created. Genotypic and serotypic analysis revealed 4 HBV/B (2 B2...

BACKGROUND MiR-106b-25 cluster, hosted in intron 13 of MCM7, may play integral roles in diverse processes including immune response and tumorigenesis. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs999885, is located in the promoter region of MCM7. METHODS We performed a case-control study including 1300 HBV-positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, 1344 HBV persistent carriers and 1344 subje...

INTRODUCTION Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in hemodialysis (HD) patients is a major concern, but limited information exists on the HBV genotyping in patients on maintenance HD in Turkey. AIM To investigate the genotype and subgenotype distribution of HBV in Turkish HD patients with chronic hepatitis B. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 248 HBsAg positive patients undergoing long-term HD f...

Genotyping of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is important for tracking HBV infections, prognosticating the development of severe liver disease, and predicting outcomes of therapy. Current genotyping methods can be laborious and costly and rely on subjective data interpretation. To identify less expensive but equally reliable alternatives, we compared "gold standard" sequencing to a novel mass spectrom...

INTRODUCTION In Brazil, little data exist regarding the distribution of genotypes in relation to basal core promoter (BCP) and precore/core mutations among chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers from different regions of the country. The aim of this study was to identify HBV genotypes and the frequency of mutations at the BCP and precore/core region among the prevalent genotypes in chronic ca...