Hepatitis B Virus Genotyping Among Chronic Hepatitis B Individuals With Resistance to Lamivudine in Shahrekord, Iran

Background:: hepatitis b infection, caused by hepatitis b virus (hbv), is one of the major global public health problems. hepatitis b virus genotypes appear to show varying geographic distribution with possible pathogenic and therapeutic differences. knowledge of hbv genotypes is very important for clinical treatment. lamivudine is a nucleoside analogue that is clinically used to treat chronic hepatitis b infection. however, the main problem with the application of lamivudine is the development of viral resistance to the treatment with this anti viral drug. besides, it has been suggested that lamivudine -resistant hbv may be genotype dependent. however, hbv genotype distribution and the biological relevance in this region are poorly understood.objectives:: the current study aimed to determine hepatitis b genotypes and their correlation with lamivudine- resistant hbv frequency among patients with chronic hepatitis b from shahrekord, iran.methods and materials:: hepatitis b virus dna was detected by conventional pcr in some of the serum samples obtained from hbsag-positive chronic hepatitis b (chb) patients who were referred to health centers of shahrekord for routine monitoring of the disease. subsequently, using real-time pcr, the dna samples were used for genotyping and analysis of resistance to lamivudine.results:: the dna was detected in 23 out of 116 (19.82%) of the studied samples. genotypes d and c were found in 17 out of 23 (73.9%), and in 6 out of 23 (26.1%) of the samples, respectively. to the authors’ best knowledge, the current study is the first report on isolation of genotype c from iran. two out of 17 (11.76%), and 6 out of 6 (100%) of genotypes d and c were resistant to lamivudine, respectively. resistance to this drug was significantly different between genotypes c and d (p < 0.001).conclusions:: in addition to genotype d, other lamivudine resistant hepatitis b genotypes might be distributed in iran.