A Critical Study of Hepatitis B Virus Genotypes and Mutation in 1762 & 1764 Nucleotides of X Gene in Chronic HBV Patients from Golestan Province—Iran

The WHO has estimated that about 378 million people are chronic carriers of HBV and many of them
develop progressive diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The genetic
mutations were proposed to be associated with fulminant hepatitis B increasing risk of hepatocellular
carcinoma. This study aimed to investigate mutation in the x gene region of HBV infected patients in
Golestan province, Iran. 100 patients were entered in this study. Hepatitis B viral DNA was extracted
from plasma and PCR was performed using specific primers. Among the chronic HBV patients 51%
were male. The results showed that 49% of patients had A1762T, G1764A double mutations changing
AGG to stop codon TGA. 27% and 24% of cases were showed mutation only in A1762T and G1764A
positions respectively. This study was shown presence of X gene mutation in chronic HBV infected
patients in Golestan province, Iran. The prevalence of mutations in nucleotides of 1762 and 1764 of
HBV X gene was higher than the world average prevalence (34%).