List of primers used to amplify the different regions of the HBV genome and their respective thermal profile are presented here.

<p>List of primers used to amplify the different regions of the HBV genome and their respective thermal profile are presented here.</p

Mutations in the Basal Core Promoter/PreCore and the Core regions of the HBV Genome.

<p>(A) The frequency of the major mutations found in the BCP/precore region of the HBV strains circulating among the treatment naive HIV infected cohort of eastern India are presented here. The frequency of the G1896A precore mutation was higher compared to the BCP double mutations in our settings with majority of the strains harboring the C1858T mutation. (B) The frequencies of the amino acid mutations found in the immune-active regions of the core gene are shown. The major mutations in the MHC class I restricted (amino acids 18–27, 88–96, 130–140, 141–151) and MHC class II-restricted (amino acids 1–20, 50–69, 81–105, 117–131, 141–165) T-cell epitopes of core antigen includes the V27I and T12S respectively.</p

Baseline characteristics of HIV/HBV co-infected (HIV⁺/HBsAg⁺), HIV mono-infected (HIV⁺) and HIV⁺/anti-HCV⁺ patients.

#<p>p-value for comparison between HIV/HBV co-infected and the HIV mono-infected subjects.</p>*<p>p-value for comparison between HIV/HBV co-infected and the HIV⁺/anti-HCV⁺ subjects.</p

Baseline characteristics of all the participating HIV/HBV co-infected individuals belonging to different HBV genotypes.

<p>Baseline characteristics of all the participating HIV/HBV co-infected individuals belonging to different HBV genotypes.</p

Phylogenetic analysis of the HBV isolates circulating among the HIV/HBV co-infected population of eastern India.

<p>The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the complete small S region (nucleotide 155–835 from <i>EcoR</i>I site) of the HBV genome using the neighbor-joining method and bootstrap value of 1000 replicates. The 39 isolates (denoted by EICIS) were analyzed with respect to 42 reference sequences retrieved from the GenBank which are designated by their respective accession numbers along with their HBV genotypes/subgenotypes and country of origin. • represents isolates belonging to HBV/A, ▪ represents HBV/C whereas ▴ represents HBV/D.</p

Frequency of subjects with HBV DNA ≥20,000 IU/ml (HBeAg⁺) and ≥2,000 IU/ml (HBeAg⁻) by CD4+ T-cell count.

<p>There was no significant difference in the percentage of HBeAg positive patients with HBV DNA ≥20,000 IU/ml between the two CD4+ T-cell count categories (p = 0.47). This indicates the higher association of HBeAg positive subjects with greater HBV viremia, irrespective of CD4+ T-cell count. Similarly, for the HBeAg negative patients, no distinct variation was observed (p = 0.23).</p

Schematic representation of the PreS deletions and the mutations in the small surface gene of the HBV strains isolated from the HIV/HBV co-infected patients of eastern India.

<p>(A) The PreS deletions are indicated by dashed lines (–). The numbers ahead of each deletion indicates the starting point of the respective amino acid deletions whereas the numbers besides the triangle (▴) indicates the length of each deletion observed in the co-infected individuals. (B) The major mutations occurring frequently within the small surface gene of HBV are shown here. The substitutions marked with a star (*) are mainly contributed due to the presence of the HBV/D2 sequences.</p

Variation of HBV DNA levels with CD4+ T-cell count and HBeAg status.

#<p>Only HBV DNA positive subjects were considered from a total of 46 HBeAg negative subjects.</p>*<p>From a total 73 HBeAg positive subjects, CD4+ T-cell count data was available for 71 subjects based on which analysis was done.</p>a<p>p-value for inter-group comparison between HBeAg positive and negative subjects with respect to CD4+ T-cell count grouping.</p>b<p>p-value for intra-group comparison between HBeAg positive and negative patients with CD4+ T-cell count of <200 cells/mm³ and ≥200 cells/mm^3.</p

Inter-patient genetic distances for different HBV genes and its divergence among different HBV genotypes.

<p>(A) The median genetic distance was significantly higher for the HBV PreS1/S2/Surface region compared to the precore/core regions. (B) The median genetic distance was significantly lower in case of HBV/A compared to HBV/D and HBV/C for both the HBV open reading frames (ORF), thus indicating the low genetic diversity of HBV/A.</p

Comparison between HBeAg positive and HBeAg negative subjects with respect to varying HBV DNA levels.

<p>Major proportion of HBeAg positive subjects were associated with higher HBV DNA levels compared to HBeAg negative subjects.</p