Occurrence & nucleotide sequence analysis of hepatitis G virus in patients with acute viral hepatitis & fulminant hepatitis.
OBJECTIVE
Association of hepatitis G virus (HGV) with acute viral hepatitis (AVH) and fulminant hepatitis (FH) is not clearly understood. This study was designed to asses the occurrence of HGV infection and its relationship with other hepatotropic viruses in patients with FH and AVH and also to determine the nucleotide sequence of HGV isolates.


METHODS
The study included 100 patients of FH and 125 of AVH on the basis of clinical examination, liver function test and serology for hepatitis A, B, C and E virus. HGV RNA was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and direct sequencing for 4 randomly selected samples followed by phylogenetic analysis.


RESULTS
Of the 100 patients with FH, 30 were negative for hepatitis viruses A, B, C and E by serology (non A-non E) while 60 were negative in the AVH group. In the non A-non-E hepatitis group, HGV was positive in 16.66 per cent (5/30) cases of FH, 10 per cent (6/60) cases of AVH and 6 per cent (6/100) of healthy controls. The difference in HGV seropositivity between FH and AVH patients was statistically not significant compared to healthy controls, while HBV and HCV infections were significant. The four isolates sequenced seemed to be of same type and close to Chinese strain of HGV (Y13755.1 Y13756.1 Y15407, and U67782) on phylogeny.


CONCLUSIONS
In HGV infection was not found to be clinically significant as well as nonpathogenic in the patients of FH and AVH and appeared to be an innocent bystander in the course of the disease. The four sequenced HGV isolates showed close pairing with Chinese strains.
Kumar
Deepak
D
Department of Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India.
Gupta
R K
RK
Anand
Ranjna
R
Pasha
S T
ST
Rai
Arvind
A
Das
B C
BC
Kar
P
P
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D029407:GB virus C / Q000235:genetics*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D004279:DNA, Viral