SIGNIFICANCE AND RELEVANCE OF SERUM PRES1 ANTIGEN-DETECTION IN WILD-TYPE AND VARIANT HEPATITIS-B VIRUS (HBV) INFECTIONS

These studies assessed whether the serum expression of preS1 antigen c ould be a useful HBV marker for monitoring the progress of antiviral t herapy in the treatment of chronic active hepatitis B (CAH-B) virus in fections. Our findings indicate that: 1) the rearrangements we observe d in the preS region of mutated HBV DNA molecules during chronic infec tion did not effect the preS1 sequence (21-47) critical for HBV infect ivity; 2) the persistence or even the rebound of preS1 antigen express ion during follow-up in responders to antiviral therapy may indicate v irus persistence, suggesting the possibility of relapse through wild-t ype HBV or the emergence of HBV variants following the immunoeliminati on phase.