Molecular epidemiology of HCV genotypes among injection drug users in Taiwan: Full-length sequences of two new subtype 6w strains and a recombinant form_2b6w
✍ Scribed by Yuan-Ming Lee; Huang-Jie Lin; Yen-Ju Chen; Cheng-Ming Lee; Sheng-Fan Wang; Kai-Yuan Chang; Tzu-Lang Chen; Hsin-Fu Liu; Yi-Ming Arthur Chen
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 457 KB
- Volume
- 82
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0146-6615
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✦ Synopsis
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) circulating recombinant form (CRF) 07_BC strain has caused serious outbreaks among injection drug users in Taiwan since 2004. The objective of this study was to conduct a molecular epidemiological study of HCV genotypes in intravenous drug users in Taiwan. Blood samples and questionnaires from 591 intravenous drug users infected with HIV-1 were collected nationwide. In total, 180 samples were selected for HCV genotyping using multiplex PCR and phylogenetic analysis of the core, E1 and NS5B regions. The Inno-Lipa assay was used to confirm multiple infections with different genotypes. Eighty percent had a single infection with subtype 1b being the most common subtype (24%), 12% had double infections and two had triple infections. In addition, three recombinant forms (RFs)-2a1a, 3a1b, and 2b6w were identified. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the 3a, 6a, and 6n strains were clustered with strains present in Thailand and mainland China. Full-length sequence analysis showed that two 6w strains shared 89.4-90.2% sequence homology with the 6(r) strain from the Guangdong Province, China. Bootscan analysis revealed that the recombination breakpoint of RF_2b6w was located at the NS2-NS3 junction. In summary, the distribution of HCV genotypes among Taiwanese intravenous drug users was complex and more than 12% of the drug users were infected with more than one genotype of HCV.