Molecular identification of HEV-B enteroviruses in patients with neurological infections from the central region of Argentina.

FARIAS A; CABRERIZO M; RÉ V; GLATSTEIN N; PISANO MB; SPINSANTI LI; CONTIGIANI M

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Año: 2011 vol. 156 p. 129 - 133

0146-6615

Human enteroviruses (HEV) are one of the main etiological agents of aseptic meningitis and other infections of the central nervous system. In Argentina, viral meningitis are of mandatory notification; however, scarce reports about diagnosis and typification have been published. In the central area of Argentina, epidemiological and molecular characteristics of HEV infections are still unknown. Molecular methods are useful to identify serotypes from clinical samples, improving the epidemiological understanding of these diseases. The objective of this study was to analyze the epidemiology and molecular identification of HEV associated to neurological infections of central Argentina, occurred between January 2007 and March 2008. RT-nested PCR of highly conserved 5’-non-coding region of the genome was used to detect HEV in 168 samples of cerebrospinal fluid from hospitalized patients with suspected infection of the central nervous system and 33 (7.7%) of them were positive. Molecular typing of HEV was performed with RT-PCR and sequencing of 3’-half VP1 region. Echovirus 30 (E30) was the most frequently detected serotype (80%), followed by coxsakievirus A9 and B4. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all E30 strains from 2007 clustered to the recently described lineage H. The only sequence obtained in 2008 from a patient with meningoencephalitis grouped distant from the others, probably belonging to a new lineage. These results are important to understand the molecular epidemiology of viral meningitis in this Argentine region. Larger studies including different periods and regions would be helpful to characterize the genetic diversity of circulating E30 in Argentina.