Evidence for hepatitis E virus quasispecies.
The genetic diversity of hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been extensively analysed during the last decade. Most sporadic and epidemic HEV strains are distributed into genotypes or groups. Nevertheless, few studies have looked at the polymorphism of HEV strains isolated from a given outbreak. A serum bank collected in Tanefdour, Algeria, during an acute hepatitis epidemic (1986-1987), retrospectively confirmed as hepatitis E, was analysed. Of the 69 serum samples collected within an 8-week period, 23 were positive for both partial ORF1 (replicase gene) and ORF2 (capsid gene) sequences. Inter- and intra-patient diversities were assessed by RFLP, and by sequencing a 448 bp sequence corresponding to ORF2. RFLP analysis distinguished three profiles: A (18/23), B (3/23) and C (2/23). Most isolates (18/23) shared 99.7-100 % sequence identity and the remainder showed 1-1.3 % divergence. HEV intra-patient diversity was studied using 12 isolates (seven displaying the major RFLP profile and five displaying minor RFLP profiles). For 9 of 12 isolates, additional intra-patient heterogeneity was revealed by RFLP analysis of 100 clones from each isolate and sequence diversity ranging from 0.11 to 3.4 %. These data strongly support the quasispecies organization of HEV during epidemics and could explain the adaptable behaviour of the virus in the host-pathogen interrelations.
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Marc
M
Grandadam
Service de Maladies Infectieuses, CHU de Batna, Batna, Algeria.
Soraya
S
Tebbal
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Mélanie
M
Caron
Unité de Recherche "Epidémiologie et Sciences de l'Information", INSERM U444, Faculté de Médecine de Saint Antoine, 27, rue de Chaligny, 75571 Paris cédex 12, France.
Mahinda
M
Siriwardana
Unité de Recherche "Epidémiologie et Sciences de l'Information", INSERM U444, Faculté de Médecine de Saint Antoine, 27, rue de Chaligny, 75571 Paris cédex 12, France.
Bernard
B
Larouze
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Jean Louis
JL
Koeck
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Yves
Y
Buisson
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Vincent
V
Enouf
Laboratoire de Biologie Clinique, HIA Val de Grâce, 74 boulevard de Port Royal, 75230 Paris cédex 05, France.
Elisabeth
E
Nicand
D000462:Algeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017385:Sequence Homology
D012367:RNA, Viral