Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Blood Centre, Cambridge, UK.
J Med Virol. 2011 Aug;83(8):1321-5. doi: 10.1002/jmv.22118.
Hepatitis B is a disease of the liver that can manifest acutely, or persist chronically as a result of infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Turkey has a moderate endemicity level of HBV infection, and all data published to date has shown this to be of genotype D, predominantly of subgenotype D1. However the sequences of very few full genomes have been published. The aim of this study was to characterize the molecular profile of hepatitis B virus in asymptomatic, first-time Turkish blood donors. The results confirm that genotype D, subgenotype D1 is the most prevalent HBV strain in Turkey, accounting for 94% of cases. Subgenotypes D2 and D3 were present as minority strains (4% and 2%, respectively). A singly spliced HBV variant that is capable of forming defective HBV particles and has been associated with apoptosis and activation of T-cell responses was also detected in 52.5% of samples screened, co-circulating with wild type genomes.
乙型肝炎是一种肝脏疾病，可急性发作，也可因感染乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）而慢性持续存在。土耳其的乙型肝炎病毒感染呈中度地方性流行，迄今为止发表的所有数据均显示其为基因型 D，主要为 subgenotype D1。然而，仅有极少数完整基因组序列已被发表。本研究旨在描述无症状的初次土耳其献血者中乙型肝炎病毒的分子特征。结果证实，基因型 D、subgenotype D1 是土耳其最流行的乙型肝炎病毒株，占 94%。亚基因型 D2 和 D3 则为少数株（分别为 4%和 2%）。在筛查的 52.5%样本中还检测到一种单剪接乙型肝炎病毒变异体，该变异体能形成缺陷乙型肝炎病毒颗粒，并与细胞凋亡和 T 细胞反应的激活有关，与野生型基因组共同循环。
