YVDD Mutation of Hepatitis B Virus, a Dominant Lamivudine-Resistant Type in Guangzhou, South China / 中国病毒学·英文版

ABSTRACT

The epidemiological effects of native and mutated YMDD motif in the HBV genome under the selective pressure of lamivudine were investigated. YMDD wild and mutation motif in HBV genome were detected by flow through reverse dot blots (FT-RDB) with KaiPuTM DNA HybriMax Rapid Hybridization Machine based on the principle of "Flow-through hybridization" and by the traditional Reverse Dot Blot assay. Sera from 1021 suspected lamivudine-resistant chronic HBV carders after more than 8 months of lamivudine therapy and the corresponding archived sera were collected and assayed. We found 35.94% were single type infections with 8.03% YMDD, 7.93% YIDD and 19.98% YVDD. It was also found that 64.06% were mixed infections including 1.96% YMDD and YIDD, 51.62% YMDD and YVDD, 1.96% YIDD and YVDD, 8.52% YMDD, YIDD and YVDD. The levels of infections containing YVDD motif reached 82.08%. The pretreatment infectious status were: YMDD single infection was 36.93%; YIDD single infection was 6.07%; YVDD single infection was 17.04%; YMDD and YIDD mixed infection was 0.97%; YMDD and YVDD mixed infection was33.99%; YIDD and YVDD mixed infection was 0.98%; YMDD, YIDD and YVDD mixed infection was 4.02%. Infections containing YVDD motif were only 56.03%. The 34.32% mutation rate of YMDD motif to YVDD was significantly higher than the 10.97% of YMDD to YIDD (U=10.98, P<0.05), as estimated by Mann-Whitney U-test for non-parametric data. HBV containing YVDD motif might have an evolutionary ascendancy and become the dominant type under the selective pressure of lamivudine.