[Sequence diversity of genotype II/1b hepatitis C virus (HCV) HVR1 of 46 patients in Beijing areas].
OBJECTIVE
To study the sequence diversity of the hypervariable region 1(HVR1) in the putative envelope protein E2/NS1 of HCV in Beijing and its neighbouring regions.


METHODS
The cDNAs (nt1119-1258) derived from plasma of 46 patients infected with genotype II/1b HCV were amplified, purified and directly sequenced by using RT-nested polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and dideoxynucleotide chain termination method.


RESULTS
The HVR1 was found in aa384-408 positions of E2 protein, which had some differences with other report. Compared with HCV-J, HCV-TW, HCV-HB and HCV-HB11, the nucleotide sequence homological rates of these HVR1 were 44.0%-66.7%(57.7%), 48.0%-72.0%(60.0%), 60.0%-85.3%(69.8%), and 56.0%-81.3%(68.2%) respectively, and the amino acid sequence homological rates were 20.0%-56.0%(38.2%), 32.0%-64.0%(45.7%), 36.0%-76.0%(49.8%) and 40.0%-76.0%(55.6%) respectively. There were 6 conserved amino acids in HVR1: AA385(Thr), AA389, 390, 406(Gly), AA401(Ser) and AA403(Phe). Two highly conserved amino acids were only found in this paper.


CONCLUSIONS
The further study of the diversity of HVR1 and its biological significance will be beneficial to the development of HCV vaccine.
Zhao
J
J
Department of Immunology, Institute of Infectious Disease, Beijing.
Cheng
Y
Y
Zhang
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines