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Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle
Published on: February 1, 2017
Identification of hepatitis B virus genotype A/E recombinants in Ghana
Ceejay L Boyce1, Stephaney Willis1, Timothy N A Archampong2,3
1Division of Digestive Disease, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Abstract:
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) exhibits a high degree of heterogeneity with at least 10 genotypes (A-J) identified to date. Intergenotypic recombination is relatively common. Previously, we investigated HBV drug resistance in HIV/HBV co-infected individuals in Ghana. After identifying multiple circulating genotypes and a novel D/E recombinant, we sought to determine if additional individuals were also infected with recombinant HBV. Partial genome sequences from three individuals were initially identified as genotype A4. Full-length HBV genomes were obtained using rolling circle amplification followed by PCR and shown to cluster with known A/E recombinant viruses. Similar recombination breakpoints were observed in these three individuals suggesting local spread of this novel recombinant HBV in Ghana.
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