OBJECTIVETo investigate the variants and quasispecies of reverse transcriptase region in polymerase gene of hepatitis B virus (HBV) during lamivudine treatment and their relationship with genotypes and viral loads.

METHODSHBV DNA of 117 chronic hepatitis B patients treated with lamivudine were amplified by using PCR. The PCR products including the YMDD motif were sequenced by DNA sequencer, of which, HBV DNA viral loads of 99 patients were determined by real-time PCR and 64 samples were sequenced by Pyrosequencing.

RESULTSIn HBV YMDD variant group and no variant group, the HBV genotypes were 79.6% and 86.7% of type C, 18.5% and 12.7% of type B, 1.9% of A/B recombinant type and 2.6% of type D, respectively. The viral loads (log 10) were 6.5699 and 6.6165, respectively. There was no significant difference in HBV genotypes and viral loads between these two groups. The rtL180M variant was found in association with the rtM204I/V variant, HBV variants and wild-type in YMDD motif all existed together in these two groups.

CONCLUSIONSHBV variants (quasispecies) in YMDD motif could be quantified by pyrosequencing, which would be a feasible measure during nucleoside or nucleotide analogue therapy against chronic HBV infection.