INVESTIGADORES
FELD Mariana
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Genetic diversity of GBvirus C / hepatitis G virus strains from Argentina: characterization by a novel restriction fragment length polymorphism, c-DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis
Autor/es:
OUBIÑA JR; MATHET V; FELD M; FERRARIO D; DELLA LATTA MP; VERDUN R; SANCHEZ DO; QUARLERI JF
Lugar:
Sydney, Australia
Reunión:
Congreso; XIth International Congress of Virology.; 1999
Resumen:
Genetic relatedness of GBV-C / HGV viral isolates from Argentine with previously characterized strains from around the world was determined. Seventy HIV infected-IVDU were studied. Viral specific RNA from serum was amplified by RT-Nested PCR using primers for the 5´UTR.  Amplicons of 325 - 329 bp were expected. RFLP was carried out by cleavage with Hinf I, Aat II and Aci I. Amplicons were bidirectionally sequenced. Sequences were aligned with Clustal X program. Evolutionary distances between 171 sequences were determined with the DNADIST program of the PHYLIP package (version 3.5c). The computed distances were used for the construction of phylogenetic trees by using the neighbour-joining method. Trees´ robustness was established by bootstrap analysis. 21/70 IVDU were GBV-C / HGV RNA positive. Prevalence among them was statistically different from the observed among blood donnord (30% vs 7,5%, P<0.0001). RFLP typing, c-DNA sequencing and the phylogenetic tree demonstrated the presence of all known 3 major genogroups – including two subgroups – within local samples i.e., group 1 (n=1), 2a (n=11), 2b (n=4) and 3 (n=5). The phylogenetic tree was supported by bootstrap analysis and confirmed the accuracy of the proposed RFLP method. These data argue against a strict geographic distribution of GBV-C / HGV genetic groups as previously observed in other countries and depicts a partial view of the molecular epidemiology of this virus in a risk population from Argentina. Besides, a novel RFLP method for GBV-C / HGV classification appears to be useful for epidemiological studies (Quarleri et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., in press).