title: Diversity of genotypes of hepatitis C virus in southern India.
abstract: A second generation assay for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) was used to screen 78 southern Indian individuals with a high risk of infection. RT-PCR targeted at the 5' end untranslated region (5'UTR) of the HCV genome was used to evaluate evidence of viraemia in 32 anti-HCV positive sera. The PCR products amplified from the 5'UTR of the HCV genome from 24 patients were sequenced, revealing the existence of two distinct groups of sequences: 21 corresponded to HCV type 1 while the other three sequences had 95% to 99% identity to HCV type 3. Two of these three isolates had more than 90% nucleotide identity in the NS5 region to established 3b sequences whereas the other had less than 74% nucleotide identity to any of the published genotype 3 (3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 3e and 3f) sequences. However, a search of the EMBL nucleotide database revealed 91% identity to the unpublished sequence of an isolate of HCV from Indonesia. We provide evidence that these two isolates may represent a novel subtype within genotype 3. Our data also suggest that HCV genotype 1 predominates over HCV genotype 3 in southern India.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Hampstead, London, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Valliammai
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Thyagarajan
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Zuckerman
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Harrison
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D005814:Genes, Viral; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral