Frequency of drug resistance and immune escape mutations in the hepatitis B virus genome detected in pregnant women in the Republic of Guinea

Abstract

The aim of the work is to assess the prevalence of hepatitis B virus drug resistance mutations and immune escape mutations in pregnant women in the Republic of Guinea. Materials and methods. Blood plasma samples obtained from 480 pregnant women from different regions of the Republic of Guinea with laboratory-confirmed viral hepatitis B were studied. Nucleotide sequences for genotype identification and mutation detection were obtained using nested-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing, based on overlapping pairs of primers spanning the complete genome of the virus. Results and discussion. In the examined group, the viral genotype E was the most prevalent (92.92%) compared with subgenotypes A1 (1.67%), A3 (1.46%), D1 (0.63%), D2 (1.04%) and D3 (2.29%). Among the examined HBV-infected pregnant women, 188 (39.17%) had undetectable HBsAg. Drug resistance mutations were detected in 33 individuals, which amounted to 6.88%. The following mutations were found: S78T (27.27%), L80I (24.24%), S202I (15.15%), M204I/V (42.42%). The presence of polymorphic variants not described as drug resistant has also been shown in positions associated with the development of drug resistance to tenofovir, lamivudine, telbivudine and entecavir (L80F, S202I, M204R). When analyzing the MHR and the region of a determinant, mutations were detected in 318 (66.25%) of pregnant women. In 172 of them, which amounted to 54.09%, multiple mutations were found. The amino acid substitutions in 13 positions associated with HBsAg-negative hepatitis B and/or potentially affecting HBsAg antigenicity were identified. Conclusion. The high prevalence of immune escape and drug resistance mutations potentially associated with false-negative result of HBsAg screening, prophylaxis failure, and virological failure of therapy that has been identified among treatment naive pregnant women imposes a serious problem.