title: Genotyping of enteroviruses isolated in Kenya from pediatric patients using partial VP1 region.
abstract: Enteroviruses (EV) are responsible for a wide range of clinical diseases in humans. Though studied broadly in several regions of the world, the genetic diversity of human enteroviruses (HEV) circulating in the sub-Saharan Africa remains under-documented. In the current study, we molecularly typed 61 HEV strains isolated in Kenya between 2008 and 2011 targeting the 3'-end of the VP1 gene. Viral RNA was extracted from the archived isolates and part of the VP1 gene amplified by RT-PCR, followed by sequence analysis. Twenty-two different EV types were detected. Majority (72.0 %) of these belonged to Enterovirus B species followed by Enterovirus D (21.3 %) and Enterovirus A (6.5 %). The most frequently detected types were Enterovirus-D68 (EV-D68), followed by Coxsackievirus B2 (CV-B2), CV-B1, CV-B4 and CV-B3. Phylogenetic analyses of these viruses revealed that Kenyan CV-B1 isolates were segregated among sequences of global CV-B1 strains. Conversely, the Kenyan CV-B2, CV-B3, CV-B4 and EV-D68 strains generally grouped together with those detected from other countries. Notably, the Kenyan EV-D68 strains largely clustered with sequences of global strains obtained between 2008 and 2010 than those circulating in recent years. Overall, our results indicate that HEV strains belonging to Enterovirus D and Enterovirus B species pre-dominantly circulated and played a significant role in pediatric respiratory infection in Kenya, during the study period. The Kenyan CV-B1 strains were genetically divergent from those circulating in other countries. Phylogenetic clustering of Kenyan EV-D68 strains with sequences of global strains circulating between 2008 and 2010 than those obtained in recent years suggests a high genomic variability associated with the surface protein encoding VP1 gene in these enteroviruses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases (DEID), United States Army Medical Research Directorate-Kenya, P.O. Box 606-00621, Nairobi, Kenya ; College of Health Sciences (COHES), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Silvanos M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Opanda
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wamunyokoli
authors.affiliation: The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Samoel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khamadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases (DEID), United States Army Medical Research Directorate-Kenya, P.O. Box 606-00621, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Rodney
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Coldren
authors.affiliation: Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases (DEID), United States Army Medical Research Directorate-Kenya, P.O. Box 606-00621, Nairobi, Kenya ; Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Wallace D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Bulimo
keywords: Genotyping; Human enterovirus; Kenya; VP1 gene