Analysis of hepatitis B virus X gene (HBx) mutants in tissues of patients suffered from hepatocellular carcinoma in China

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) X (HBx) gene multi-site mutations are a frequent event in the clinical hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues. It has been reported that the mutation of the HBx plays a crucial role in the development of HBV-related HCC. To identify the novel mutations of HBx in the HCC tissues, we examined and analyzed the sequences of HBx gene in 60 cases of HCC tumor tissues and paratumor tissues from China by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The mutation patterns of HBx were analyzed by comparing the tumor tissues with non-tumor tissues. The data showed that 44 cases of tissues out of 60 patients were HBV-positive. Our results showed that the mutations at amino acid 30, 88, 144 from tumor samples and at amino acid 31, 43, 87, 94 from non-tumor samples were highly frequent events. Interestingly, we found that a novel type of HBx linked-mutations, such as at aa L30F/S144A, was 29.5% (13/44) positive in the tumor tissues. However, the role of HBx gene mutations at aa L30F/S144A relative to wild type HBx gene is unclear in hepatocarcinogenesis. The novel HBx linked-mutations may be significant in the development of HCC.