Infection and Drug Resistance (Jun 2020)
Pre-S Deletions are Predominant Quasispecies in HIV/HBV Infection: Quasispecies Perspective
Abstract
Yuan Nie,1,2,* Xi-Zi Deng,1,* Yun Lan,1 Feng Li,1 Feng-Yu Hu1 1Research Institute, Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Feng-Yu HuResearch Institute,Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Guangzhou Medical University, No. 627, Dongfeng Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou 510030, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]: Combined HIV infection can accelerate HBV-induced liver disease. It is known that HBV Pre-S deletion is closely related to HBV-associated terminal liver disease in HBV mono-infection. Currently, data on HBV Pre-S quasispecies feature deletion in HIV/HBV co-infected patients are lacking.Methods: The characteristics and blood samples of patients with chronic HBV infection were collected and classified into an HIV/HBV co-infection group and an HBV mono-infection group according to HIV antibody results before treatment. HBV DNA in serum was extracted. The HBV Pre-S region was amplified by nested-PCR and was further T-A cloned. Using the standard sequence of the matched genotype HBV as a reference, BioEdit 7.0 software was employed for sequence alignment.Results: HBV Pre-S regions were successfully amplified from 147 patients, including 71 cases in the HIV/HBV co-infected group and 76 cases in the HBV mono-infected group. The proportion of the HIV/HBV co-infected group with Pre-S quasispecies deletion was lower than that of the HBV mono-infected group. By analyzing the frequency of Pre-S quasispecies in the two groups, the frequency of Pre-S quasispecies in HIV/HBV co-infected patients with Pre-S quasispecies was higher than HBV mono-infected patients. The frequency of Pre-S quasispecies deletion of the S protein promoter region in the HIV/HBV co-infected group was significantly higher than that in the HBV mono-infected group.Conclusion: High-frequency Pre-S quasispecies deletions are predominant in HIV/HBV co-infected patients; however, low-frequency Pre-S deletions are predominant in HBV mono-infected patients, providing a reference for the pathogenesis of the accelerated progression of liver disease in HIV/HBV co-infection.Keywords: human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, quasispecies, Pre-S region, deletion
