Molecular identification of enteroviruses responsible for an outbreak of aseptic meningitis; implications in clinical practice and epidemiology.
An outbreak of aseptic meningitis was recorded in Greece during the year 2001. Detection of the clinical strains was achieved by performing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on RNA isolated from cell cultures inoculated with treated faecal material from the patients. Serotypic identification of the isolates with mixed equine antisera pools followed and the RT-PCR amplicons were further studied by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing. Fifty-three clinical enterovirus strains were isolated from respective cases of suspected enterovirus infection, most of which showed the clinical symptoms of aseptic meningitis. Echovirus (ECV) 6 was the most frequently isolated serotype, followed by coxsackie B viruses, ECV13, poliovirus type 1 (PV1) vaccine strain and ECV30. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed the existence of different genetic groups on the basis of the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) of the genome, which circulated in the population during the same time period. Different serotypes belonged to the same genetic group and vice versa. The 5'-UTR seems to be appropriate for the investigation of enterovirus evolution and epidemiology.
Siafakas
Nikolaos
N
Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, 26 Ploutonos str. and Aeolou, Larissa 41221, Greece.
Markoulatos
Panayotis
P
Levidiotou-Stefanou
Stamatina
S
D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004769:Enterovirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008582:Meningitis, Aseptic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012703:Serotyping
D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D012367:RNA, Viral