HepSEQ: International Public Health Repository for Hepatitis B

Abstract

HepSEQ is a repository for an extensive library of public health and molecular data relating to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection collected from international sources. It is hosted by the Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency (HPA), England, United Kingdom. This repository has been developed as a web-enabled, quality-controlled database to act as a tool for surveillance, HBV case management and for research. The web front-end for the database system can be accessed from http://www.hpa-bioinfodatabases.org.uk/hepatitis_open/main.php. The format of the database system allows for comprehensive molecular, clinical and epidemiological data to be deposited into a functional database, to search and manipulate the stored data and to extract and visualize the information on epidemiological, virological, clinical, nucleotide sequence and mutational aspects of HBV infection through web front-end. Specific tools, built into the database, can be utilized to analyse deposited data and provide information on HBV genotype, identify mutations with known clinical significance (e.g. vaccine escape, precore and antiviral-resistant mutations) and carry out sequence homology searches against other deposited strains. Further mechanisms are also in place to allow specific tailored searches of the database to be undertaken.