Prevalence of herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein G (gG) and gI genotypes in patients with herpetic keratitis.
OBJECTIVE
Recent phylogenetic analyses on the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) genes US4, encoding glycoprotein G (gG) and US7, encoding gI, of clinical HSV-1 isolates have led to the classification of HSV-1 into three genotypes, arbitrarily designated as A, B and C. The prevalence of the HSV-1 gG and gI genotypes and their potential disease association was determined in a large cohort of patients with herpetic keratitis (HK).


METHODS
Primary corneal HSV-1 isolates of 178 HK patients were genotyped by a PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism method targeting the viral genes US4 and US7.


RESULTS
Genotype B was more frequently expressed by the corneal HSV-1 isolates compared with genotypes A and C. Fifty-five of 178 corneal isolates (31%) had different genotypes in both loci. No clinically relevant associations were observed between the HSV-1 genotypes and disease outcome in the HK patients studied.


CONCLUSIONS
The data presented demonstrate a high frequency of recombinant corneal HSV-1 isolates and suggest that clinical outcome of HSV-1-induced keratitis is independent of a gG or gI genotype.
Duan
R
R
Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
van Dun
J M
JM
Remeijer
L
L
Siemerink
M
M
Mulder
P G H
PG
Norberg
P
P
Osterhaus
A D M E
AD
Verjans
G M G M
GM
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016849:Keratitis, Herpetic / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*
D004279:DNA, Viral; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C064959:glycoprotein I, herpes simplex virus type 1; C050591:glycoprotein gG-1, herpes simplex virus type 1