Entecavir (ETV) exhibits potent antiviral activity in patients chronically infected with wild-type or lamivudine (3TC)-resistant (3TC r ) hepatitis B virus (HBV). Among the patients treated in phase II ETV clinical trials, two patients for whom previous therapies had failed exhibited virologic breakthrough while on ETV.Isolates from these patients (arbitrarily designated patients A and B) were analyzed genotypically for emergent substitutions in HBV reverse transcriptase (RT) and phenotypically for reduced susceptibility in cultures and in HBV polymerase assays. After 54 weeks of 3TC therapy, patient A (AI463901-A) received 0.5 mg of ETV for 52 weeks followed by a combination of ETV and 100 mg of 3TC for 89 weeks. Viral rebound occurred at 133 weeks after ETV was started. The 3TC r RT substitutions rtV173L, rtL180M, and rtM204V were present at study entry, and the additional substitutions rtI169T and rtM250V emerged during ETV-3TC combination treatment. Reduced ETV susceptibility in vitro required the rtM250V substitution in addition to the 3TC r substitutions. For liver transplant patient B (AI463015-B), previous famciclovir, ganciclovir, foscarnet, and 3TC therapies had failed, and RT changes rtS78S/T, rtV173L, rtL180M, rtT184S, and rtM204V were present at study entry. Viral rebound occurred after 76 weeks of therapy with ETV at 1.0 mg, with the emergence of rtT184G, rtI169T, and rtS202I substitutions within the preexisting 3TC r background. Reduced susceptibility in vitro was highest when both the rtT184G and the rtS202I changes were combined with the 3TC r substitutions. In summary, infrequent ETV resistance can emerge during prolonged therapy, with selection of additional RT substitutions within a 3TC r HBV background, leading to reduced ETV susceptibility and treatment failure.Nearly 400 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) worldwide (16,19). After prolonged infections, often lasting decades, patients frequently develop severe liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Chronically infected patients also serve as sources of HBV transmission. There are currently three approved therapies for chronic HBV infections: interferon, lamivudine (3TC; ␤-L-2Ј,3Ј-dideoxy-3Ј-thiacytidine), and adefovir-dipivoxil, the prodrug of adefovir [ADV; 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine] (18). Interferon is administered subcutaneously and is associated with numerous adverse events, some of which can be severe, and a sustained antiviral response in only 30 to 40% of treated patients (30). 3TC treatment, administered orally, is effective in reducing viral loads but results in the frequent emergence of drug-resistant HBV due to substitutions at the Tyr-Met-Asp-Asp (YMDD) nucleotide binding site motif of viral DNA polymerase. Data from four large clinical trials revealed 3TC resistance (3TC r ) mutations in 24, 42, 53, and 70% of patients after 1, 2, 3, and 4 years of therapy, respectively (15). Treatment with ADV, recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,...

Viral infection of mammalian cells entails the regulated induction of viral gene expression. The induction of many viral genes, including the herpes simplex virus gene encoding thymidine kinase (tk), depends on viral regulatory proteins that act in trans. Because recognition of the tk promoter by cellular transcription factors is well understood, its trans induction by viral regulatory proteins may serve as a useful model for the regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. A comprehensive set of mutations was therefore introduced into the chromosome of herpes simplex virus at the tk promoter to directly analyze the effects of promoter mutations on tk transcription. The promoter domains required for efficient tk expression under conditions of trans induction corresponded to those important for recognition by cellular transcription factors. Thus, trans induction of tk expression may be catalyzed initially by the interaction of viral regulatory proteins with cellular transcription factors.