title: GB virus C/hepatitis G virus infection among Japanese patients with chronic liver diseases and blood donors.
abstract: Recently, a novel hepatitis virus, GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), has been isolated. To elucidate the seroprevalence of chronic GBV-C/HGV infection in Japan and the phylogenetic relationship between Japanese strains and the strains previously reported, serum GBV-C/HGV RNA was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in 203 patients with chronic liver diseases and 200 samples of voluntary blood donors. RT-PCR was performed with primers derived from the 5'-untranslated region which were conserved between GBV-C and HGV and distant from other flaviviruses including hepatitis C virus (HCV). The nucleotide sequences were determined by the dideoxy chain termination method. The phylogenetic analysis was performed by the neighbor-joining method. In 10 (4.7%) of 203 patients with chronic liver diseases and in 1 (0.5%) of 200 blood donor samples, serum GBV-C/HGV RNA was detected. Of 10 patients, 9 patients were positive for anti-HCV and negative for HBsAg, and 1 patient was positive for HBsAg and negative for anti-HCV. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that there were three major groups which were group 1 (GBV-C), group 2 (HGV), and group 3 (a group of Japanese strains). These data indicated that (1) there was a low prevalence of GBV-C/HGV infection in Japanese patients with chronic liver diseases, (2) a high proportion of patients with GBV-C/HGV infection had chronic HCV infection however, and (3) there were at least three groups in strains of GBV-C/HGV.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Medicine, Nagoya City University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Orito
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mizokami
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohba
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mukaide
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hikiji
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D001782:Blood Donors; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence