Evolution of Hepatitis B Virus in a Chronic HBV-Infected Patient over 2 Years. Hepat Res Treat. 2011;2011:939148. [PMID: 21785721 PMCID: PMC3139125 DOI: 10.1155/2011/939148]

Hepatitis B virus infection: Defective surface antigen expression and pathogenesis

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health concern. HBV causes chronic infection in patients and can lead to liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and other severe liver diseases. Thus, understanding HBV-related pathogenesis is of particular importance for prevention and clinical intervention. HBV surface antigens are indispensable for HBV virion formation and are useful viral markers for diagnosis and clinical assessment. During chronic HBV infection, HBV genomes may acquire and accumulate mutations and deletions, leading to the expression of defective HBV surface antigens. These defective HBV surface antigens have been found to play important roles in the progression of HBV-associated liver diseases. In this review, we focus our discussion on the nature of defective HBV surface antigen mutations and their contribution to the pathogenesis of fulminant hepatitis B. The relationship between defective surface antigens and occult HBV infection are also discussed.

Lamivudine/Adefovir Treatment Increases the Rate of Spontaneous Mutation of Hepatitis B Virus in Patients

The high levels of genetic diversity shown by hepatitis B virus (HBV) are commonly attributed to the low fidelity of its polymerase. However, the rate of spontaneous mutation of human HBV in vivo is currently unknown. Here, based on the evolutionary principle that the population frequency of lethal mutations equals the rate at which they are produced, we have estimated the mutation rate of HBV in vivo by scoring premature stop codons in 621 publicly available, full-length, molecular clone sequences derived from patients. This yielded an estimate of 8.7 × 10-5 spontaneous mutations per nucleotide per cell infection in untreated patients, which should be taken as an upper limit estimate because PCR errors and/or lack of effective lethality may inflate observed mutation frequencies. We found that, in patients undergoing lamivudine/adefovir treatment, the HBV mutation rate was elevated by more than sixfold, revealing a mutagenic effect of this treatment. Genome-wide analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms indicated that lamivudine/adefovir treatment increases the fraction of A/T-to-G/C base substitutions, consistent with recent work showing similar effects of lamivudine in cellular DNA. Based on these data, the rate at which HBV produces new genetic variants in treated patients is similar to or even higher than in RNA viruses.

Transposon mouse models to elucidate the genetic mechanisms of hepatitis B viral induced hepatocellular carcinoma

The major type of human liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and there are currently many risk factors that contribute to this deadly disease. The majority of HCC occurrences are associated with chronic hepatitis viral infection, and hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection is currently a major health problem in Eastern Asia. Elucidating the genetic mechanisms associated with HBV-induced HCC has been difficult due to the heterogeneity and genetic complexity associated with this disease. A repertoire of animal models has been broadly used to study the pathophysiology and to develop potential treatment regimens for HBV-associated HCC. The use of these animal models has provided valuable genetic information and has been an important contributor to uncovering the factors involved in liver malignant transformation, invasion and metastasis. Recently, transposon-based mouse models are becoming more widely used in liver cancer research to interrogate the genome by forward genetics and also used to validate genes rapidly in a reverse genetic manner. Importantly, these transposon-based rapid reverse genetic mouse models could become crucial in testing potential therapeutic agents before proceeding to clinical trials in human. Therefore, this review will cover the use of transposon-based mouse models to address the problems of liver cancer, especially HBV-associated HCC occurrences in Asia.

BAsE-Seq: a method for obtaining long viral haplotypes from short sequence reads

We present a method for obtaining long haplotypes, of over 3 kb in length, using a short-read sequencer, Barcode-directed Assembly for Extra-long Sequences (BAsE-Seq). BAsE-Seq relies on transposing a template-specific barcode onto random segments of the template molecule and assembling the barcoded short reads into complete haplotypes. We applied BAsE-Seq on mixed clones of hepatitis B virus and accurately identified haplotypes occurring at frequencies greater than or equal to 0.4%, with >99.9% specificity. Applying BAsE-Seq to a clinical sample, we obtained over 9,000 viral haplotypes, which provided an unprecedented view of hepatitis B virus population structure during chronic infection. BAsE-Seq is readily applicable for monitoring quasispecies evolution in viral diseases.

BAsE-Seq: a method for obtaining long viral haplotypes from short sequence reads

We present a method for obtaining long haplotypes, of over 3 kb in length, using a short-read sequencer, Barcode-directed Assembly for Extra-long Sequences (BAsE-Seq). BAsE-Seq relies on transposing a template-specific barcode onto random segments of the template molecule and assembling the barcoded short reads into complete haplotypes. We applied BAsE-Seq on mixed clones of hepatitis B virus and accurately identified haplotypes occurring at frequencies greater than or equal to 0.4%, with >99.9% specificity. Applying BAsE-Seq to a clinical sample, we obtained over 9,000 viral haplotypes, which provided an unprecedented view of hepatitis B virus population structure during chronic infection. BAsE-Seq is readily applicable for monitoring quasispecies evolution in viral diseases.

Hepatitis B virus genetic mutations and evolution in liver diseases

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) belongs to the genus Orthohepadnavirus of the Hepadnaviridae family and is approximately 3.2 kb in length. Owing to a lack of proofreading capacity during reverse transcription and a high replication rate, HBV exhibits as quasispecies. To detect the genetic mutations of HBV, many methods with different sensitivities and throughputs were developed. According to documentary records, HBV mutation and evolution were important vial parameters in predicting disease progression and therapeutic outcome. In this review, we separately discussed the correlation between HBV genomic mutations in four open reading frames and liver disease progression. Since some of the results were controversial from different laboratories, it remains to be seen whether functional analyses will confirm their role in modifying the course of infection.