Prevalence of hepatitis B virus core promoter mutant isolated from asymptomatic carriers from areas with higher and lower incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in Guangxi

Objective To understand the prevalence of HBV core promoter mutant (T 1762 A 1764 mutant) isolated from asymptomatic carriers from areas with higher and lower incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Guangxi Methods A nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) was used for amplification of HBV DNA core promoter in sera, and then HBV DNA nPCR products were sequenced by direct sequencing Results The results show that 50 6% (39/77) of all HBV asymptomatic carriers were positive for HBV DNA HBV DNA positive rates of the samples from HCC higher incidence area, Longan County, and from lower incidence area, Guilin city were 55 6% (20/36) and 46 3% (19/41), respectively HBV core promoter mutants could be seen in 35% in Longan positive samples and 47 4% in Guilin The common mutations in both regions were all double mutations (nt 1,762 A→T; nt 1,764 G→A), accounting for 25% and 21%, respectively The difference of the double mutant between Longan County and Guilin city was not significant ( P 0 05) Conclusion These data implicated that the prevalence of HBV core promoter mutant isolated from asymptomatic carriers may not be correlated with the incidence of HCC in Guangxi