Chapter 8

Molecular Variants of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg)

Seyed Mohammad Jazayeri

Seyed Mohammad Jazayeri

Hepatitis B Laboratory, Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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Seyed Moayed Alavian

Seyed Moayed Alavian

Middle East Liver Diseases Center (MELD), Tehran, Iran

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Payam Dindoost

Payam Dindoost

Middle East Liver Diseases Center (MELD), Tehran, Iran

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Howard C. Thomas

Howard C. Thomas

Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK

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Peter Karayiannis

Peter Karayiannis

St George's Medical School, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

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First published: 26 July 2013
Citations: 2

Summary

The division of hepatitis B virus (HBV) isolated from different geographical regions into genotypes and subtypes has long been recognized. This division is based on amino acid variation in the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-encoding region, and more specifically the hydrophilic region that constitutes the a antigenic determinant. This same region constitutes the major neutralizing epitope recognized by natural infection- and vaccine-induced antibodies. However, a number of mutations have been described in different clinical settings that allow the virus to evade the neutralizing immune response. This chapter aims to review the current level of knowledge regarding HBsAg variants.

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