Novel hepatitis B virus genotype a subtyping assay that distinguishes subtype Aa from Ae and its application in epidemiological studies.

ABSTRACT: The eight genotypes of hepatitis B virus (HBV) have different geographical distributions, virological characteristics, and clinical manifestations. A unique subtype of HBV genotype A (HBV/A) was reported in sub-Saharan Africa, raising the possibility that patients infected with this subtype (HBV/Aa ["a" for African and Asian]) may have different clinical outcomes than other HBV/A isolates (HBV/Ae ["e" for European]). Comparison between 30 HBV/Aa and 30 HBV/Ae isolates indicated that almost all HBV/Ae isolates had G at nucleotide (nt) 1809 and C at nt 1812, whereas HBV/Aa isolates had T1809/T1812. Taking advantage of these two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a novel subtype-specific PCR assay in the X/precore/core region was developed. This assay was combined with a restriction frag

SUBMITTER: Hasegawa I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC434120 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature