TY - JOUR AU - Coleman, Paul T1 - Detecting Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Mutants T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2006 VL - 12 IS - 2 SP - 198 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Hepatitis B viral mutants can emerge in patients as a result of selection pressure from either immune response or treatment options. Mutations that occur within the immunodominant epitopes of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) allow mutant virus to propagate in the presence of a neutralizing immune response, while wild-type virus is reduced to undetectable levels. HBsAg mutants present as false-negative results in some immunoassays. An understanding of immunoassay reactivity with HBsAg mutants is key to establishing an appropriate testing algorithm for hepatitis B virus detection programs. KW - Hepatitis B virus KW - HBsAg KW - mutations KW - immunoassay KW - perspective DO - 10.3201/eid1202.050038 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/2/05-0038_article ER - End of Reference