Analysis of variation in CTL epitope of HBV popular in China / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the variation in CTL epitope of hepatitis B virus (HBV) popular in China. Methods Amino acid sequences of 13 cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes previously reported abroad were taken as reference sequences, and comparison was made draw between these reference sequences and both the 45 CTL-epitopic sequences obtained from the Genbank and also 5 CTL-epitopic sequences from native patients with chronic hepatitis B, using Vector NTI software. Results Sequence variations were observed frequently within several CTL eptitopes of HBV genotype B and C compared with the reference sequences. In the 13 analyzed CTL epitopes, 4 showed variation accounting over 70% in genotype B, and 2 have variance over 70% in occurrence in genotype C. Among these, C18-27 (FLPSDFFPSV), HBcAg-derived CTL epitope which was the most frequently studied previously, is showed in variation more frequently in HBV genotype B and C popular in China, reaching 71% and 97%, respectively. Conlusion Some CTL epitopic sequences of HBV genotype B and C popular in China have their own charactiristic difference from previously reported ones, which should be considered in the study of CTL response of Chinese subjects.