Open AccessPartial nucleotide sequencing of the NS3/helicase region of hepatitis G virus to prove vertical transmission
Author(s) -
Takayama Shigenobu,
Miura Takuma,
Tominaga Tomonari,
Taki Masashi,
Matsuo Sumitaka,
Sugii Shunji,
Shimotohno Kunitada
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1999.tb13631.x
Subject(s) - ns3 , virology , gb virus c , flaviviridae , helicase , hepatitis c virus , virus , biology , transmission (telecommunications) , nucleic acid sequence , nucleotide , genetics , rna , dna , gene , electrical engineering , engineering
To study non‐parental transmission of hepatitis G virus and/or GB virus C (HGV/GBV‐C), we sequenced and compared the NS3/helicase region of the virus for five HGV/GBV‐C RNA‐positive mothers and their 11 children who had experienced neither blood transfusion nor overt hepatitis and were negative for HBV, HCV and HIV, except in one mother coinfected with HCV. The nucleotide sequences of the familial HGV/GBV‐C isolates showed high similarity of 99–100% (mean 99.8%, 100% at the deduced amino acid level) between mother and her child(ren) in each family. These findings strongly suggest the spontaneous occurrence of mother‐to‐child transmission of HGV/GBV‐C as reported previously. They also suggest that nucleotide sequence analysis on the NS3/helicase region of HGV/GBV‐C may be a useful tool to study HGV/GBV‐C transmission.