Open AccessMolecular diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant hepatitis B virus
Author(s) -
Jeong Han Kim,
Yong Kwang Park,
Eun-Sook Park,
Kyun-Hwan Kim
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
world journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 2219-2840
pISSN - 1007-9327
DOI - 10.3748/wjg.v20.i19.5708
Subject(s) - hepatitis b virus , virology , drug resistance , hepatitis b , reverse transcriptase , antiviral drug , virus , drug , medicine , biology , polymerase chain reaction , gene , pharmacology , genetics
Oral antiviral agents have been developed in the last two decades for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). However, antiviral resistance remains an important challenge for long-term CHB therapy. All of the clinically available oral antiviral agents are nucleoside or nucleotide analogues that target the activity of viral reverse transcriptase (RT), and all are reported to have resistant mutations. Since the hepatitis B virus (HBV) RT, like other viral polymerases, lacks proofreading activity, the emergence of drug-resistance occurs readily under selective pressure from the administration of antiviral agents. The molecular diagnosis of drug-resistant HBV is based on sequence variations, and current diagnostic methods include sequencing, restriction fragment polymorphism analysis, and hybridization. Here, we will discuss the currently available molecular diagnosis tools, in vitro phenotypic assays for validation of drug-resistant HBV, and treatment options for drug-resistant HBV.