Diversity of GB virus C/Hepatitis G virus isolates in Singapore: Predominance of group 2a and the Asian group 3 variant
✍ Scribed by Wong, Soon-Boon Justin; Chan, Soh-Ha; Ren, EE-Chee
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 146 KB
- Volume
- 58
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0146-6615
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✦ Synopsis
The occurrence of GBV-C/HGV infection was studied in 160 individuals from two high-risk groups in Singapore. RT-PCR of the 5Ј-UTR detected GBV-C/HGV RNA in 3/73 (4.1%) of patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis for chronic renal failure, and in 17/87 (19.5%) of patients coinfected with HCV who tested positive for HCV RNA. Phylogenetic analysis of 5Ј-UTR sequences from these 20 samples showed that the Asian or group 3 variant was found in 45% of the samples sequenced, thus confirming the high frequency of this variant in the region. Group 2a variants accounted for 50% of the samples with a complete absence of group 2b. Our analysis also provided strong bootstrap support for the subdivision of group 2 into subgroups 2a and 2b. This study shows that isolates belonging to all three main groups of GBV-C/ HGV can be detected in Singapore, with the large majority belonging to groups 2a (50%) and 3 (45%). Only a single group 1-like sequence was detected within the 20 isolates. Of interest also is that all group 3 isolates were identified in Chinese patients while group 2a was found in both Chinese and Malay.