Bagasi Arwa, Alghnnam Fatimah, Bohol Marie, Alhamlan Fatimah, Al-Qahtani Arwa, Alothaid Hani, Abdo Ayman, Sanai Faisal, Al-Qahtani Ahmad
Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11433, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Infection and Immunity, Research Centre, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Gut Pathog. 2025 Jun 21;17(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s13099-025-00719-y.
Mutations within the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) were found to correlate with progressive liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Mutations in this region can impact viral morphogenesis, virus-host interactions, and immune responses. In this cross-sectional study, we screened for mutations in the pre-S/S regions of HBsAg in sequences retrospectively generated from samples collected in Saudi Arabia. We analyzed 304 full-length HBsAg sequences isolated from samples collected from four clinical groups: inactive (n = 180), active (n = 62), liver cirrhosis (LC) (n = 36), and HCC (n = 26). Three mutations (N103D, Q30K, and I208T) in HBsAg showed significantly higher frequencies in the HCC group compared to other clinical groups. Additionally, the presence of the three mutations combined was significantly associated with HCC in a multivariate analysis. The evolutionary analysis further revealed that these mutation sites are subjected to positive selection within the HCC group. The structural analysis suggested that position 103 within HBsAg pre-S region is prominently accessible and mutations at this site may disrupt interactions with viral/cellular factors or impact recognition by immune responses. Collectively, our findings highlight a significant increase in the frequency of three HBsAg mutations in a cohort of HCC patients in Saudi Arabia and their potential effect.
乙型肝炎病毒表面抗原(HBsAg)内的突变被发现与包括肝细胞癌(HCC)在内的进行性肝病相关。该区域的突变可影响病毒形态发生、病毒与宿主的相互作用以及免疫反应。在这项横断面研究中,我们在沙特阿拉伯收集的样本回顾性生成的序列中筛选了HBsAg前S/S区域的突变。我们分析了从四个临床组收集的样本中分离出的304条全长HBsAg序列:非活动组(n = 180)、活动组(n = 62)、肝硬化(LC)组(n = 36)和HCC组(n = 26)。与其他临床组相比,HBsAg中的三个突变(N103D、Q30K和I208T)在HCC组中的频率显著更高。此外,在多变量分析中,这三个突变共同存在与HCC显著相关。进化分析进一步表明,这些突变位点在HCC组中受到正选择。结构分析表明,HBsAg前S区域内的第103位显著易接近,该位点的突变可能破坏与病毒/细胞因子的相互作用或影响免疫反应的识别。总体而言,我们的研究结果突出了沙特阿拉伯一组HCC患者中三个HBsAg突变频率的显著增加及其潜在影响。