Studies on hepatitis B virus genotypes and responses to antigen-antibody complex therapeutic vaccine
LI Xiao-xiao; MA Zhang-mei; WEN Yu-mei
Ministry of Education/ Ministry of Health Key laoboratory of Medical Molecular Virology, Fudan University Shanghai Medical College, Shanghai 200032, China
Objective To study whether there are differences in the responses of chronic hepatitis B patients infected with different hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes to HBsAg-HBIG therapeutic vaccine. Method Serum samples from sixty seven chronic hepatitis B patients who completed the full course of immunization with 60?g HBsAg-HBIG (YIC) were assayed for their virus genotypes by PCR-RFLP, in association with their viral and HBeAg sero-conversion responses to YIC treatment. Results Among the 67 patients, 22 were infected with HBV genotype B, and 43 were infected with genotype C, while in 2 patients the genotype of HBV could not be identified. In association with the responses to YIC treatment, no significant therapeutic differences were found between patients who were infected with HBV genotype B or with HBV genotype C. Conclusion Infections with HBV genotypes B or C do not affect the therapeutic responses in chronic hepatitis B patients to YIC.