AMPLIFICATION AND SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF THE PRECORE AND CORE REGION OFTHE HBV GENOME FROM SERA OF SPANISH PATIENTS WITH HBV2-LIKE INFECTIONS

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections are occasionally associated with un usual serological profiles which may be attributed to the lack of immu ne responsiveness of the patients or to variants of the virus. The ter m HBV2 was introduced to describe potential variants of HBV which do n ot elicit a detectable immune response to the nucleocapsid (anti-HBc) in apparently immune-competent patients. The entire nucleotide sequenc es of the nucleocapsid genes of viruses from two Spanish patients with HBV2-like infections are reported here. In-frame deletions and other mutations in these sequences may account, at least in part, for the un usual serological profiles of the patients. Antibody responses to vira l proteins containing deletions may not be detected by commercially av ailable assays. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.