title: Unusual rotavirus genotypes among children with acute diarrhea in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human rotavirus A (human RV-A) is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in infants. The objective of the study was to characterize the G and P genotypes among clinical rotavirus isolates from children with acute diarrhea admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2011 to 2012, 541 pediatric patients with acute diarrhea were tested for rotavirus infection. RNA extractions from the fecal specimens were done by commercial kit. RT-PCR and sequencing techniques were used to detect the prevalent genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis by Maximum Likelihood method was used to study the clustering of the circulating genotypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data showed that 171/541 (31.6%) faecal samples were positive for human RVA and majority were children aged below 2 years. From the G and P [types] detected it was seen that (a) 171 minus 43 ie. 128 rotavirus positives were G typed successfully (b) 171 minus 20 ie. 151 rotavirus positives were P typed successfully; (c) overall G [P] nature was determined for 113 rotavirus positives out of 171. VP4 genotyping showed that majority of the positives 146/151 (96.7%) were P [8]; 4/151 (2.6%) were P [4]; 1/151 (0.66%) was P [6]. The dominant strains included G1P [8] 70/113 (61.9%); G9P [8] 19/113 (16.8%); G12P [8] 7/113 (6.2%) and G3P [8] 5/113 (4.4%) while the uncommon strains detected from Saudi Arabia during the study were G1P [4] 1/113 (0.88%) and G12P [6] 1/113 (0.88%). Phylogenetic tree, based on VP4/VP7 sequence analysis, revealed that G1P [8] was distinctly related to homologous strains included in human RV-A vaccine strains. Nevertheless, the uncommon genotypes G1P [4] and G12P [6] were clustered with isolates from other countries such as Bangladesh, China, Japan, Thailand and Philippines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More studies will be required to further focus on newly emerging genotypes in our region together with the seasonality of rotavirus infection in the region, especially after January 2013 when the rotavirus vaccination has become part of routine childhood immunizations.
authors.affiliation: King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh, 11426, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. alyma@ngha.med.sa.|King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. alyma@ngha.med.sa.
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aly
authors.affiliation: King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh, 11426, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. akalkhairy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Aisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al Khairy
authors.affiliation: King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. JohaniS@NGHA.MED.SA.|Department of Microbiology, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. JohaniS@NGHA.MED.SA.
authors.forename: Sameera
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al Johani
authors.affiliation: King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh, 11426, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. BalkhyH@NGHA.MED.SA.|King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. BalkhyH@NGHA.MED.SA.|Department of Infection Prevention and Control, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. BalkhyH@NGHA.MED.SA.
authors.forename: Hanan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Balkhy
mesh_terms: D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002662:Child Health Services; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000821:virology*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010802:Phylogeny; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000821:virology*; D022243:Rotavirus Vaccines; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D022243:Rotavirus Vaccines