Determining the potential of a Hepatitis B variant to exibit antiviral resistance

摘要

Disclosed is an assay method for detecting Hepatitis B virus (HBV) exhibiting reduced sensitivity to particular agents and/or reduced interactivity with immunological reagents. More particularly, the present invention is directed to Hepatitis B virus (HBV) variants with a specific combination of mutations on a reverse transcriptase portion of HBV DNA polymerase which exhibit complete or partial resistance to nucleoside or nucleotide analogs and/or reduced interactivity with antibodies to viral surface components including reduced sensitivity to these antibodies.