Evaluation of peptide nucleic acid array for the detection of hepatitis B virus mutations associated with antiviral resistance

A major problem of long-term antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B patients is the emergence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations associated with drug resistance. Recently, a new array using peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), which are synthetic nucleic acid analogues, was developed for the detection of HBV mutations at six different codon positions associated with lamivudine (LAM) and adefovir (ADV) resistance. We compared the PNA array with direct sequencing and reverse hybridization (INNO-LiPA) in 73 samples obtained from chronic hepatitis B patients. The PNA array detected mutations associated with LAM and/or ADV resistance in 60 (82.2%) of the 73 samples. The overall concordance rate of PNA array and INNO-LiPA compared with direct sequencing was 99.5% and 98.2%, respectively. The rate of complete concordance between PNA array and INNO-LiPA was 92.7%. The PNA array assay results were comparable with INNO-LiPA for detection of HBV mutations associated with antiviral resistance.