Abstract: Objective To investigate the correlation between mutation rates in different drug-resistance sites of hepatitis B virus (HBV) gene and genotype as well as cirrhosis.Methods A total of 391 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) treated in our hospital were enrolled. All the patients were treated with nucleoside (acid) analogue (NAs), they were divided into 2 groups according to genotype: B genotype (345 cases) and C genotype (46 cases). Mutation rates of 6 drug-resistance sites (rtL180M, rtM204V, rtM204I, rtV207I, rtA181V, rtN236T) and ratios of multi-mutation types were compared between the 2 groups. The patients were divided into the CHB group and (342 cases) and cirrhosis group (43 cases) according to the existence of cirrhosis, and the mutation rates of 6 drug-resistance sites were compared between the 2 groups.Results The mutation rates of rtL180M (21.7% vs 7.0%) and rtM204V+rtL180M (46.2% vs 16.5%) in C genotype group were higher than those in B genotype group (P<0.05). The mutation rate of rtA181V in cirrhosis group was significantly higher than that in CHB group (7.0% vs 0.3%), (P<0.05).Conclusion Mutation rates of HBV gene at different drug-resistance sites are correlated with different genotypes and cirrhosis. Detection of drug resistance mutation sites in patients with CHB can provide reference for antiviral therapy in clinic.

Key words: Hepatitis B, Drug resistance, Genotype, Nucleoside analogues