Author information
1Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA.
2Unité Mixte Internationale 174, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Programs for HIV Prevention and Treatment (PHPT), Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
3Unité Mixte Internationale 174, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Programs for HIV Prevention and Treatment (PHPT), Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
4Unité Mixte Internationale 174, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Programs for HIV Prevention and Treatment (PHPT), Chiang Mai, Thailand.
5Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA; University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Electronic address: lfrenkel@u.washington.edu.
Abstract
Treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with lamivudine-monotherapy rapidly selects mutant variants in a high proportion of individuals. Monitoring lamivudine resistance by consensus sequencing is costly and insensitive for detection of minority variants. An oligonucleotide ligation assay (OLA) for HBV lamivudine-resistance was developed and compared to consensus sequencing. Both assays detected drug resistance mutations in 35/64 (54.7%) specimens evaluated, and OLA detected minority mutants in an additional six (9.4%). OLA may offer a sensitive and inexpensive alternative to consensus sequencing for detection of HBV drug resistance in resource-limited settings.