Open AccessDetection of hepatitis B virus pre-S mutants in plasma by a next-generation sequencing-based platform determines their patterns in liver tissues
Author(s) -
Chiao-Fang Teng,
Hung Wen Tsai,
TsaiChung Li,
Ting Wang,
John Wang,
Woei Cherng Shyu,
Han Chieh Wu,
Ih Jen Su,
Long Bin Jeng
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0234773
Subject(s) - hepatitis b virus , hepatocellular carcinoma , mutant , immunohistochemistry , genotyping , population , liver cancer , hepatitis c virus , medicine , biology , pathology , virology , virus , cancer research , genotype , gene , genetics , environmental health
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) pre-S mutants in liver tissues or blood have been regarded as a high-risk population for HCC development and recurrence. Detection of pre-S mutants in clinical specimens is thus important for early diagnosis and prognosis of HCC to improve patient survival. Recently, we have developed a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based platform that can quantitatively detect pre-S mutants in patient plasma with superior sensitivity and accuracy. In this study, we compared the pre-S genotyping results from plasma by the NGS-based analysis with those from liver tissues by the immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based analysis in 30 HBV-related HCC patients. We demonstrated that the detection rate of pre-S mutants was significantly higher by NGS- than by IHC-based analysis. There was a moderate to good agreement between both analyses in detection of pre-S mutants. Compared with the IHC, the NGS-based detection of pre-S mutants in patient plasma could determine the patterns of pre-S mutants in liver tissues more efficiently in a noninvasive manner. Our data suggest that the NGS-based platform may represent a promising approach for detection of pre-S mutants as biomarkers of HBV-related HCC in clinical practice.