Prevalence of sapovirus infection among infant and adult patients with acute gastroenteritis in Tehran, Iran.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigated the prevalence of sapovirus infections in patient with acute gastroenteritis in Tehran, Iran.


BACKGROUND
Sapovirus, a member of the family Caliciviridae is one of the major causative agents of viral gastroenteritis affecting both children and adult individuals. There isn't enough data about prevalence and genotypes of sapovirus infection in Tehran, the capital city of Iran.


METHODS
A total of 42 fecal samples were collected from patients with acute gastroenteritis from May to July 2009. RT nested- PCR was performed for screening. To genotype the sapovirus isolates, some positive samples were subjected to phylogenetic analysis by sequencing of fragments of viral capsid gene region.


RESULTS
Sapovirus was detected in 5 of 42 stool specimens from patients with acute gastroenteritis. Sapovirus detected in this study was clustered into only one distinct genogroup I/2. Sapovirus GI/2 was predominant.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that among the studied viruses responsible for this disease, sapovirus was a major viral isolate virus.
Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sara
S
Romani
Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Pedram
P
Azimzadeh
Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Seyed Reza
SR
Mohebbi
Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sajad Majidizadeh
SM
Bozorgi
Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Narges
N
Zali
Department of Pathology and Laboratory sciences, Mofid Children's Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Farzaneh
F
Jadali
Acute gastroenteritis; Genogroup; Sapovirus