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. 2020 Nov 25;15(11):e0242748. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242748

Fig 1. Schematic summary of the pre-S deletion regions in plasma of 75 HBV-related HCC patients.

Fig 1

The HBV surface gene is composed of the pre-S1, pre-S2, and S gene segments. The arrow above the diagram indicates the start site (nt 1) of the circular HBV genome that goes clockwise and ends at nt 3221 (not shown). The nt numbers below the diagram indicate the positions of three gene segments in the HBV genome. The grey boxes represent the deletion regions detected in the pre-S1 and pre-S2 gene segments. Here only the deletion regions found in at least 2 of 75 patients were shown and designated in order from the top to bottom as follows: the pre-S1 deletion (nt 2854 to 2970), the pre-S1 deletion (nt 2854 to 3021), the pre-S1 deletion (nt 2855 to 2872), the pre-S1 deletion (nt 2858 to 2986), the pre-S1 deletion (nt 2910 to 3089), the pre-S2 deletion (nt 1 to 54), the pre-S2 deletion (nt 1 to 57), and the pre-S1+pre-S2 deletion (nt 2855 to 2872, 1 to 54). The frequency of these pre-S deletion regions in 75 HCC patients as well as the number of patients with HBV genotype B or C for each type of pre-S deletion region were shown on the right half of the figure. Abbreviations: HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma.