Tarbiat Modares University Pathobiology Research 2538-3000 16 4 2014 02 01 Methylation Pattern of Hepatitis B Virus X Gene in Infected Patients بررسی الگوی متیلاسیون ژن x ویروس هپاتیت B در افراد آلوده 39 46 19168 EN Fatemeh Hosseini Department of Virology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Mehrdad Ravanshad Department of Virology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Mehrdad Noruzinia Department of Medical Genetic, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article Objective: A recent field of research in epigenetics is DNA methylation which involves the CpG island in the genome that subsequently controls transcription and translation of targeted genes. In the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome, there are three CpG islands which tend to be methylated. The aim of the current study is to determine the methylation pattern of the HBV X gene in chronically infected HBV patients. Methods: Study participants comprised 45 chronically infected HBV patients. According to the presence of the HBeAg, patients were divided into two groups, HBeAg positive (n=24) and HBeAg negative (n=21). Initially, viral DNA was treated with natrium bisulfate. Then, analysis was performed with two sets of methylated and non-methylated primers by the MSP method. Results: The overall methylation rate in serum samples of hepatitis B infected patients was 35.5%; the rate in the HBeAg positive patients was 20.8%, whereas it was 52.3% in HBeAg negative patients. There was a significantly higher rate of methylation in serum samples of HBeAg negative patients compared to HBeAg positive patients (student's t-test; P=0.02). Conclusion: Methylation of HBV can be used as a new mechanism to control the progression of viral infection. This methodology can be useful for determining the characteristics of clinical stages of this infection. https://mjms.modares.ac.ir/article_19168_0d81f8d2278a750f06f9fd48fe57cef0.pdf