Design of oligonucleotides for the detection Hepatitis B virus.

Abstract

Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by the potentially deadly Hepatitis B virus (HBV).About 600 000 people die each year from the serious consequences of HBV. HBV has a partially double-stranded DNA, semicircular, enveloped belonging to the family Hepadnaviridae.The use of virological tests in the study of Hepatitis B has become an essential tool for the diagnosis, the guideline for treatment decisions and to evaluate the response to antiviral treatment. The objective was to develop new primers to identify specifically the HepatitisBvirus, using the technique of chain reaction (PCR).DNAwas obtained from different sera, five negative and five positive for the virus, checked by virological tests that recognize the surface antigen and IgM anticore. From the complete sequence of the virus obtained from the NCBI database (National Center for Biotechnology Information) designed a pair of oligonucleotides, which allowed amplify a fragment of the viral genome of 630 bp.The fragment was sequenced in both directions coincide with the published sequence for theVHB.