Prevalence and clinical characteristics of human CoV-HKU1 in children with acute respiratory tract infections in China.
BACKGROUND
Human CoV-HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) has been isolated from a 71-year-old man with pneumonia; however, the impact and role of emerging HCoV-HKU1 have not been defined in children with acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI).


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the Prevalence and clinical characteristics of HCoV-HKU1 in children with ARTI in Lanzhou, China.


METHODS
The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or PCR was employed to screen HCoV-HKU1 and other common respiratory viruses in 645 nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) specimens collected from children with ARTI from November 2006 to October 2008. All PCR positive products were sequenced. And the demographic and clinical data were collected for all patients.


RESULTS
Nineteen of 645 (2.95%) specimens tested positive for HCoV-HKU1, and all HCoV-HKU1 positive specimens were distributed in the winter and spring season. The HCoV-HKU1 co-infection rate with other respiratory viruses was 47.37% (9/19). There was no statistically significant difference in the detection rate between groups by age or gender, except between patients with and without underlying diseases. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that HCoV-HKU1 genotype B was circulating in the years 2007 and 2008 in children with ARTI in Lanzhou, China.


CONCLUSIONS
HCoV-HKU1 is an uncommon virus existing among Chinese children with ARTI. Children with underlying diseases are more vulnerable to viral infection. Only HCoV-HKU1 genotype B circulated locally.
Jin
Yu
Y
Departments of Nanjing Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China.
Song
Jing-Rong
JR
Xie
Zhi-Ping
ZP
Gao
Han-Chun
HC
Yuan
Xin-Hui
XH
Xu
Zi-Qian
ZQ
Yan
Kun-Long
KL
Zhao
Yang
Y
Xiao
Ni-Guang
NG
Hou
Yun-De
YD
Duan
Zhao-Jun
ZJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015897:Comorbidity; D003332:Coronaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003333:Coronaviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012621:Seasons; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D012367:RNA, Viral