Genetic diversity in hepatitis C virus in Egypt and possible association with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Egypt has one of the world's highest prevalences of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, with a majority of genotype 4 infections. To explore the genetic diversity of HCV in Egypt, sera from 131 Egyptians [56 from community studies, 37 chronic hepatitis patients, 28 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and 10 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma] were genotyped by restriction fragment-length polymorphism and phylogenetic analyses of sequences from the mid-core and non-structural 5B regions. The different genotyping methods showed good agreement. The majority of the viruses (83 of 131; 63%) were of subtype 4a, but five other subtypes within genotype 4 were also observed, as well as three genotype 1b, five genotype 1g and one genotype 3a samples. Interestingly, subtype 4o, which was easily identifiable in all three genomic regions, showed an association with HCC (P=0.017), which merits further investigation.
Abdel-Hamid
Mohamed
M
Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.|Department of Microbiology, Minia University, Egypt.|International Health Division, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Department, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
El-Daly
Mai
M
National Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt.|Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
Molnegren
Vilma
V
Department of Medical Microbiology, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
El-Kafrawy
Sherif
S
National Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt.|Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
Abdel-Latif
Sohair
S
National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Esmat
Gamal
G
Department of Tropical Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Strickland
G Thomas
GT
International Health Division, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Department, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Loffredo
Christopher
C
Lombardi Cancer Centre, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
Albert
Jan
J
Department of Virology, Immunology and Vaccinology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, and Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
Widell
Anders
A
Department of Medical Microbiology, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000821:virology*; D017931:DNA Primers; D004534:Egypt; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
D017931:DNA Primers