Hong Kong Med J 2015;21(Suppl 4):S35-8
Identification of hepatitis B virus DNA reverse transcriptase variants associated with partial response to entecavir
DKH Wong, J Fung, CL Lai, MF Yuen
Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
 
 
1. Entecavir is a potent antiviral agent against hepatitis B virus (HBV). In a cohort of 370 entecavir-treated chronic hepatitis B patients, 76 (21%) had a partial virological response, defined by detectable HBV DNA at year 1.
2. In HBV reverse transcriptase sequence analysis, 20 amino acid variants were identified solely in the partial responders.
3. There were 4 reverse transcriptase (rt) amino acid variants that had significantly different distribution between the optimal and partial entecavir responders.
4. HBV quasispecies complexity and diversity were higher in the optimal responders than in the partial responders.
5. In multivariate analysis, high baseline HBV DNA, hepatitis Be antigen-positivity, and rt variant rt124N were significantly associated with partial entecavir response.