title: Genetic diversity in hepatitis C virus in Egypt and possible association with hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdel-Hamid
authors.affiliation: National Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt.|Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Daly
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Vilma
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Molnegren
authors.affiliation: National Liver Institute, Menoufia, Egypt.|Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Sherif
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: El-Kafrawy
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Sohair
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abdel-Latif
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Gamal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Esmat
authors.affiliation: International Health Division, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Department, University of Maryland-Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: G Thomas
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Strickland
authors.affiliation: Lombardi Cancer Centre, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loffredo
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Immunology and Vaccinology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, and Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Widell
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers