Jerusalem and Rehovot, Israel; Seoul, South Korea, May 29, 2012 --
The discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved
organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a
genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B
virus (HBV) genotype C2 sequence common in Southeast Asia.
Additional analysis of the ancient HBV genomes may be used as a
model to study the evolution of chronic hepatitis B and help understand
the spread of the virus, possibly from Africa to East-Asia. It also may
shed further light on the migratory pathway of hepatitis B in the Far
East from China and Japan to Korea as well as to other regions in Asia
and Australia where it is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer.
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