Hepatitis B virus preS1 deletion is related to viral replication increase and disease progression

Figure 2 Real-time polymerase chain reaction melting curve analyses that identified the hepatitis B virus preS1 deletion variants (WT, 15-bp del, 18-bp del, or 21-bp del) with deletions at the start codon of preS1 with cloned positive control plasmids and non-template controls. The T_ms were determined using duplicate runs and are presented as average and standard deviation values. The Y-axis is the negative differential of fluorescence over temperature at the detection channel and is normalized using background fluorescence at channel 530. PCR: Polymerase chain reaction; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; WT: Wild type; 15, 18, 21-bp del: 15, 18, 21-base pair deletion; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; LC: Liver cirrhosis; CH: Chronic hepatitis; C: Carrier.