Hepatitis B Virus: Genotypes and Subtypes in Brazilian Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

There are no data concerning the genotypic analysis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Brazilian dialysis centers. Serum samples from all hemodialysis patients (n = 282) in Goiânia City, Central Brazil, were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). An overall prevalence of 12.0% was found, ranging from 0 to 33.3% depending on dialysis centers. Positive samples (n = 34) were submitted to serological subtyping by monoclonal ELISA and HBV DNA detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Among 30 PCR-positive samples, 26 were genotyped by use of the line probe assay technology (INNO-LiPA HBV, Innogenetics, Gent, Belgium). HBV genotypes A (50. 0%) and D (46.2%) were the most frequently found whereas genotype F (3.8%) was rare in this population. Serological subtypes adw2 (44. 1%) and ayw3 (41.2%) were dominant. By contrast, adw4 and ayw2 were found at a low frequency (2.9%). A correlation was observed in the distribution of genotypes and subtypes by dialysis center. Genotype D and subtype ayw3 were predominant in 2 hemodialysis centers whereas genotype A and subtype adw2 were predominant in the others. The findings of high HBsAg prevalence rates restricted to certain dialysis centers and the data obtained through genotyping and serological subtyping suggest HBV nosocomial transmission in these hemodialysis centers.

Molecular characterization of the hepatitis B virus in autochthonous and endogenous populations in the Western Brazilian Amazon

“…It has been reported that about 50% of HBV circulating in the country is genotype A, from an African subtype, possibly related to the introduction of Africans in Brazil by the slave trade 29 . Besides the influence of African origin, the influence of European colonization and the presence of Lebanese peddlers in the Amazon region during the period of rubber exploitation 30 may explain the strong presence of genotypes A and D that were found in our samples.…”

Hepatitis B viral infection in maintenance hemodialysis patients: A three year follow-up

“…China, a country hyperendemic for HBV infection, has a higher rate of HBV infection than most industrialized nations. That is why the prevalence rate of HBV infection in our hemodialysis patients is higher than previous observations from western countries (0.9%-5.9%) [11][12][13][14] as well as from other developing nations (4%-17%) [15][16][17][18][19] . In order to study the risk of HBV infection, we examined the time on hemodialysis, the biochemical data and the history of blood transfusions of the two groups of patients.…”

“…However, the frequency of HBV infection in patients undergoing maintenance dialysis in the industrialized world is low, but not negligible [11][12][13][14] . Persistent HBsAg seropositivity is much higher in lessdeveloped countries [15][16][17][18][19] , especially in China. The prevalence of HBV infection among hemodialysis patients varies between countries and between dialysis units within a single country.…”

Hepatitis B Virus Genetic Diversity: Disease Pathogenesis

“…These methods include restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) [60], PCR with specific primers for single genotypes [61], multiplex-PCR for many HBV genotypes [62,63] and on hybridization technologies [64] or real time quantification and genotyping [65] or Mass spectrometry [66]. The gold standard method for HBV genotyping is a complete genome sequencing followed by phylogenetic analysis of the sequence divergence [9,52].…”