High Prevalence of hepatitis virus C (HCV genotype 2 in Cordoba, Argentina

RÉ, V; LAMPE, E; YOSHIDA, C; MENDES DE OLIVEIRA, J; LEWIS-XIMENEZ, L; SPINSANTI, L; ELBARCHA, O; CONTIGIANI, M

Brasil

Congreso; Congreso Sociedade Brasileira de Viología; 2002

Sociedade Brasileira de Viología.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, which is a major cause of chronic liver disease, is strongly associated with progressive liver pathology, including cirrhosis, hepatic failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV isolates were classified by their genetic relatedness into at least six genotypes and a series of subtypes. The HCV genotype has been shown to have impact on the clinical and histological features and on the response to antiviral treatment. For the region of Córdoba, located in the center of the country, no data on HCV genotype are available up to now. To determine the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes circulating in the central region of Argentina, 96 consecutive anti-HCV positive patients were studied. The presence of HCV RNA was detected by RT-nested PCR of the 5? noncoding region and genotyping performed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis combined with PCR using type-specific primers of the core region. Among 96 patients anti?HCV positive, 60 (62.5%) were HCV RNA positive by PCR. The genotype distribution in the 60 positive HCV RNA samples showed that 55% were identified as type 2, 38% as type 1, and 5 % as type 3. Genotype 4 was found in only one (1.7%) sample. Within genotype 1, subtype 1b was the most prevalent. None of the individuals was infected with more than one genotype. Genotype 2 was found more frequently in females than in males (66.7% vs. 33.3%; P < .05). This study shows that in the area of central Argentina, genotype 2 accounts for most of the cases of HCV infection. This figure differ from others cohorts from east Argentinian patients in whom genotype 1 has been found as the most prevalent. This indicated that regional differences of genotype distribution might exist between central and east Argentina and most importantly that these findings have consequential therapeutic implications in view that infection with HCV 2 or 3 were independent predictors for sustained response to interferon therapy.