Infection with GB virus C in leprous patients in Japan

✍ Scribed by Egawa, Katsushi; Yukawa, Tomo; Arakawa, Shoichi; Nakao, Haruhisa; Inoue, Taisuke; Tanaka, Takeshi; Tsuda, Fumio; Okamoto, Hiroaki; Miyakawa, Yuzo; Mayumi, Makoto

• Book ID: 102646530
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 537 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199606)49:2<110::aid-jmv7>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

The detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in blood donors and patients with acute and chronic hepatitis has brought to the fore another virus or vi- ruses which can be transmitted parenterally and induce liver disease. The RNA of a candidate vi- rus designated GB virus C (GBV-C) was determined by the polymerase chain reaction with primers deduced from a helicase-like region in 229 leprous patients in Japan. GBV-C RNA was detected in 12 (5.2%) patients, and HCV RNA in 41 (18%). Three patients were coinfected with GBV-C and HCV. The nine patients infected with GBV-C alone had aminotransferase levels lower than the three patients with the mixed infection or the 38 patients infected with HCV only ( P < 0.001). Sequence comparison within 100 base pairs in the helicase-like region suggested that two, three and three patients, respectively, would have been infected with three distinct strains of GBV-C. These results indicate that patients with leprosy are at increased risk for infection not only with HCV, but also with GBV-C, and that the infection with GBV-C alone would not induce hepatic injuries as severe as HCV infection. Q 1996 Wilev-Liss, Inc.