title: Evidence of two major genotypes of hepatitis C virus in France and close relatedness of the predominant one with the prototype virus.
abstract: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) cDNA sequence in the nonstructural region NS3 was amplified from the serum of 66% French non-A, non-B hepatitis patients by the nested polymerase chain reaction. A 407 base-pair sequence was determined from four such cases, which revealed the presence of two different virus genotypes F1 (three cases) and F2 (one case) with 19-20% sequence divergence. F1 showed close homology (97.5%) to the prototype US isolate, but only limited (79%) homology to the reported Japanese isolates. In contrast, F2 had 91.6% homology to the Japanese isolate, but only 81% homology to the prototype US virus. Hybridization of the amplified products from 50 French samples with labeled F1 and F2 fragments suggested the F1-related strain(s) as the major hepatitis C virus genotype. Further studies involving a greater variety of samples will confirm whether the F1-related strain is the predominant hepatitis C virus strain circulating in France. Such data will have important implications for the PCR detection of HCV infection and production of HCV vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Hépatites, INSERM 271, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vitvitski
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lepot
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trépo
mesh_terms: D016375:Antisense Elements (Genetics); D001483:Base Sequence; D002213:Capsid / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005602:France; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins
chemical_list: D016375:Antisense Elements (Genetics); D004279:DNA, Viral; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins