Occurrence of hepatitis B virus mutations in patients with liver cirrhosis

It is known that hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype and selected mutations may be associated with an increased risk of liver cirrhosis. Objective. To identify HBV mutations associated with liver cirrhosis and assess the possibility of their use as prognostic markers. Patients and methods. A total of 136 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were included in the study. Of them, 26 (19.1%) were diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. Using the HBV-seq NGS panel developed by us, viral genomes in samples obtained from the study participants were read. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson χ2 criterion with FDR correction at p < 0.05. Results. A number of single nucleotide substitutions and corresponding amino acid mutations associated with liver cirrhosis were identified. Thus, nucleotide substitutions 16C>T, 111C>A, 150T>C/G, 472C>T, 512C>A, 520A>G, 972A>T, 1068C>A, 1082G>A, 1114G>A, 1138A>C were associated with cirrhosis, 1435T>C, 1484C>A, 1491C>A/T, 1635T>A/G, 2139C>T, 2158T>C, 2242G>A, 2407A>G, 2435C>A, 2513A>G, 2615C>T, 2696T>C, 2744C>T, 2952A>C, 3006C>T, 3060A>G, 3183A>G, 3192A>G (reference X02763). The logistic regression model built on the obtained data was characterised by the following parameters: accuracy 0.838, sensitivity 0.769, specificity 0.855. Conclusion. The results obtained open prospects for further research and the use of hepatitis B virus full genome sequencing data for predicting the risk of liver cirrhosis. Key words: HBV, viral hepatitis B, cirrhosis, NGS