RÉSUMÉ
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a recently discovered viral agent transmitted by blood, which was firstly identified in patients with acute or chronic liver disease. HGV prevalence in US blood donors was recently found to average 1-2%. We report a much higher HGV frequency among blood donors of São Paulo, Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 200 serum samples were submitted to RT-PCR using primers directed to the 5' untranslated region and nonstructural 5A (NS5A) region. PCR products were analyzed by gel electrophoresis and Southern blot hybridization. RESULTS: Of the 200 specimens, 18 (9%; 95% CI 5.4-13.8%) were positive by both sets of primers. Sequence analysis of the NS5A PCR products revealed a homology of 96.3%. Of the 18 HGV-positive samples, only one was positive for anti-HBc and all were anti-HCV- and HCV-RNA-negative. CONCLUSION: Such a high prevalence of HGV in a nonsymptomatic population suggests that this is a benign agent.
Sujet(s)
Flaviviridae/génétique , Hépatites virales humaines/épidémiologie , Hépatites virales humaines/génétique , Séquence nucléotidique , Donneurs de sang , Brésil/épidémiologie , ADN viral/sang , Femelle , Flaviviridae/composition chimique , Flaviviridae/isolement et purification , Humains , Mâle , Données de séquences moléculaires , Réaction de polymérisation en chaîne , Prévalence , Analyse de séquence d'ADN , Protéines virales non structurales/analyseRÉSUMÉ
Recently, sequences from a novel human flavivirus, termed GB virus C (GBV-C) or hepatitis G virus (HGV), have been identified in serum from patients with cryptogenic hepatitis and others. Sera from 116 patients with different clinical backgrounds were tested for the presence of GBV-C/HGV RNA by a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction with primers from the nonstructural (NS) 5 region. Ten (15%) patients on maintenance hemodialysis and 5 (19%) non A-C hepatitis patients were GBV-C/HGV RNA positive, along with one patient with chronic hepatitis B, one patient with chronic hepatitis C, and two asymptomatic individuals. Sequence comparison within 354 base pairs in the NS5 region showed homology rates varying from 87% to 97% among five Brazilian isolates, and from 86% to 93% between Brazilian strains and GBV-C/HGV isolates from other countries previously sequenced. Homology rates were higher at the amino acid level since most substitutions occurred at the third nucleotide position of codons without changing the codon meaning.