Effect of HBV Core Gene Mutations on the Severity of Acute Viral Hepatitis B

Kim, Yun Soo; Kim, Young Seok; Cha, Sang Woo; Moon, Jong Ho; Cho, Young Deok; Lee, Moon Sung; Byun, Kwan Soo; Shim, Chan Sup; Suh, Dong Jin; Lee, Chang Hong

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Missense mutation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) core gene has been reported to be frequent in fulminant hepatitis (FH) B. This study was carried out to investigate whether there is a difference in severity of the disease according to the presence of the mutation in acute viral hepatitis (AVH) B. The codon sites with missense mutation were compared to those of chronic hepatitis (CH) B.
METHODS
HBV core gene sequences were analysed by PCR-direct sequencing method in 25 cases of AVH-B (23 self-limited AVH and 2 FH).
RESULTS
Missense mutation was observed in 7 cases of self-limited AVH and 2 cases of FH. In patients with self-limited AVH, the mean levels of serum ALT and total bilirubin were 1912+/-01/1140+/-21 IU/L (p<0.05) and 11.6+/-.8/9.0+/-.5 mg/dL (patients with the mutations/patients without mutations), respectively. Most frequent mutations observed in the cases of self-limited AVH were substitutions of Ile to Leu at codon 97 and Pro to Thr at codon 130, which had been reported to be frequent in the CHB.
CONCLUSIONS
There was a tendency for the patients infected with the core mutant to suffer from severe hepatitis even in the self-limited cases. Common sites of missense mutation in AVH-B were same as those in CHB.