The genomic RNA of an Asian isolate of hepatitis delta virus was cloned from a Chinese patient from Taiwan, using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify cDNA for cloning and sequencing. The sequence of this hepatitis delta virus isolate shares an 86% to 88% similarity with the three published hepatitis delta virus RNA sequences, suggesting heterogeneity of hepatitis delta viruses from different geographical areas. Four highly conserved, long stretches of sequence were found. These four regions corresponded to the sequences required for the autocatalytic cleavage activities of the genomic and antigenomic RNAs and the middle and the carboxyl terminal parts of the open reading frame for the delta antigen on the antigenomic strand. The conservation of nucleotide sequence in these four regions was further confirmed by sequencing additional hepatitis delta virus RNAs obtained from three patients with chronic delta hepatitis who lived in Los Angeles. These findings suggest that the conserved sequences are critical for viral replication. These conserved regions offer ideal sites for primer selection to carry out polymerase chain reactions to detect hepatitis delta virus RNA in patients with hepatitis delta virus infection. (HEPATOLOGY 1991; 13:345-352.)
Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) contains a single-stranded circular RNA of 1.7 kb (1-3). This RNA structure is similar to that of viroids or virusoids (4). Also similar to virusoids (51, HDV RNA has an autocatalytic cleavage and ligation activity (6-9), which is probably involved in its replication processes. Unlike viroid RNAs, however, the HDV RNA encodes a virus-specific protein, the delta antigen (HDAg), which constitutes the internal viral structural protein (10, 111, and is detected in the nuclei