Rapid investigation of hepatitis A virus outbreak by single strand conformation polymorphism analysis

✍ Scribed by Vincent Mackiewicz; Anne-Marie Roque-Afonso; Eric Marchadier; Elisabeth Nicand; Lamia Fki-Berrajah; Elisabeth Dussaix

• Book ID: 102378595
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 76
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20355

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Investigation of hepatitis A virus (HAV) outbreaks often implies nucleotide sequence analysis. As an alternative method for the identification of related strains, single strand conformation polymorphism method (SSCP) was compared to sequence analysis. Twenty‐three strains from sporadic and outbreak cases were studied retrospectively. SSCP, sequence identity and phylogenetic analyses were conducted on a 267 bp fragment of the VP1‐2A variable region. The results of SSCP pattern comparison and sequence identity were highly correlated (r = 0.92, P < 0.001). If SSCP showed similar patterns, the VP1‐2A fragments had a high and significant probability to have a sequence identity over 99.6%. Results were concordant for outbreak strains. The only discordant result concerned a cluster of three sporadic cases evidenced by phylogenetic analysis while SSCP showed similar patterns for only two of these three cases. A prospective SSCP analysis of a recent HAV outbreak confirmed the reliability of this technique. SSCP may thus provide a rapid and cost‐effective tool for preliminary investigation of HAV outbreaks, before undertaking exhaustive nucleotide sequence analysis. J. Med. Virol. 76:271–278, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.