Virology

Biography

Biography: Sherif El-Kafrawy

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a member of the family Hepadnaviridae and is classified into ten genotypes (A-J) and 34 sub-genotypes. These genotypes differ in geographic distribution, HBeAg seroconversion rate, clinical outcome, prognosis, and response to antiviral treatment. HBV is transmitted through percutaneous or parenteral routes and is affecting human health allover the world. The prognosis of chronic HBV (CHB) infection includes hepatic failure, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

In the last two decades several studies have been published concerning the epidemiology and prevalence of HBV in Saudi Arabia. However, studies exploring the evolutionary aspect and molecular variations in in HBV are very limited. The  introduction of mandatory vaccination have reduced the prevalence in young Saudis, <25 years old, but the prevalence of in individuals more than 25 years is about 4%.  Expatriates working in Saudi Arabia, 33% of the population, contribute to the burden of HBV infection in the country. Genotype D is the most prevalent HBV genotype in Saudi Arabia.

The molecular characterization of HBV in Saudi Arabia is an urgent need to develop appropriate diagnosis and treatment strategies. The presence of drug resistant mutations in treatment naïve patients have been documented and is shown to be one of the factors affecting the response to antiviral treatment. The best reported approach to investigate the prevalence of these mutations is deep sequencing using next generation sequencing techniques. To approach this point of research, we performed deep  sequencing of the virus from chronically infected HBV patients from Saudi Arabia.

The results of the Next generation sequencing and the rare mutations found in the samples of the recruited subjects as well as their clinical data will be presented in the presentation