Premium
Age‐specific prevalence and genetic diversity of GBV‐C/hepatitis G virus in Brazil
Author(s) -
Lampe Elisabeth,
Saback Felipe L.,
Viazov Sergei,
Roggendorf Michael,
Niel Christian
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199809)56:1<39::aid-jmv7>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - gb virus c , virology , virus , genotype , biology , flaviviridae , seroprevalence , hepatitis c virus , viral disease , medicine , antibody , serology , immunology , genetics , gene
The recently discovered GBV‐C/hepatitis G virus (GBV‐C/HGV) has been shown to be parenterally transmitted. The occurrence of community‐acquired GBV‐C/HGV infections has also been reported. In order to study the variations with age of the GBV‐C/HGV prevalence, sera from 268 individuals without liver disease, aged 0–80 years, and living in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were tested by reverse transcription‐nested polymerase chain reaction for the presence of GBV‐C/HGV RNA. Age‐specific seroprevalence was low (2.3%) among children under the age of 10, reached a maximum of 18% in young adults (21–30 years), and declined in older age groups. Among 170 blood donors aged 18–60, the rate of individuals with antibodies against the viral envelope E2 protein increased with age, from about 6% between the ages of 18 and 24 to about 35% for individuals from the age of 43 to 60. The results suggest that sexual transmission of GBV‐C/HGV might occur and that the virus could be eliminated after a long period of infection. The nucleotide sequences of GBV‐C/HGV genome fragments, 422 base pairs (bp) in the E2 region and 354 bp in the nonstructural 5 region, were determined for 11 and 31 isolates, respectively. Phylogenetic tree based on concatenated E2+NS5 sequences showed that Brazilian strains belonged to three clusters, two of which were previously characterized as genotypes 1 and 2. J. Med. Virol. 56:39–43, 1998 . © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.