Circulating Pregenomic Hepatitis B Virus RNA Is Primarily Full-length in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Undergoing Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Therapy.

Anderson, Mark; Gersch, Jeffery; Luk, Ka-Cheung; Dawson, George; Carey, Ivana; Agarwal, Kosh; Shah, Pir; Dusheiko, Geoffrey et al. · Clin Infect Dis · 2021

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

Hepatitis B virus RNA is detectable in the serum of infected patients; however, the RNA species has been questioned. We tested 1827 specimens using a quantitative dual-target quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay and determined that full-length pregenomic RNA is the primary source. These results clarify the major identity of circulating HBV RNA species.

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