Dipartimento di Biologia e Patologia Cellulare e Molecolare, Napoli, Italia.
Intervirology. 2010;53(3):183-7. doi: 10.1159/000289342. Epub 2010 Mar 3.
Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is considered the best marker for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Mutations of the s gene involving amino acid substitutions within the a determinant could affect the sensitivity of diagnostic tests. In the present study, HBsAg mutants were detected in 3 immunocompromised patients, previously found to be HBsAg negative and anti-HBs positive. All patients had high levels of HBV-DNA, whereas HBsAg tests gave discordant results. Immunosuppression can cause viral reactivation of occult HBV infection in these patients and favour the selection of HBsAg a determinant mutants.
乙肝表面抗原（HBsAg）被认为是乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）感染诊断的最佳标志物。s 基因的突变涉及 a 决定簇内的氨基酸替换，可能会影响诊断试验的敏感性。在本研究中，在 3 名免疫功能低下的患者中检测到 HBsAg 突变体，这些患者先前被发现 HBsAg 阴性和抗-HBs 阳性。所有患者的 HBV-DNA 水平均较高，而 HBsAg 检测结果不一致。免疫抑制会导致这些患者隐匿性 HBV 感染的病毒再激活，并有利于 HBsAg a 决定簇突变体的选择。
