Prevalence of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus infection among various populations in Surabaya, Indonesia, and identification of novel groups of sequence variants

Retno Handajani, Soetjipto, Maria Inge Lusida, Purnomo Suryohudoyo, Pangestu Adi, Poernomo Boedi Setiawan, Chairul Anwar Nidom, R. Soemarto, Yuko Katayama, Motoko Fujii, Hak Hotta

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32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A molecular epidemiological study was performed to investigate the prevalence of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV) infection among various populations in Surabaya, Indonesia. The prevalence of GBV-C/HGV RNA, determined by reverse transcription-PCR for a portion of the NS3 region of the viral genome, was 2.7% (4 of 150) among randomly collected blood donor sera, which were all negative for both hepatitis B virus surface antigen and antibodies against hepatitis C virus (HCV). On the other hand, the prevalence among anti-HCV-positive blood donors was 17.8% (13 of 73), with the ratio being significantly higher than that observed with the anti-HCV-negative blood donors (P < 0.001). A high prevalence of GBV-C/HGV infection was also observed among patients with chronic liver disease, such as chronic hepatitis (5.7%), liver cirrhosis (11.5%), and hepatocellular carcinoma (7.0%), and patients on maintenance hemodialysis (29.0%). No correlation was observed between GBV-C/HGV viremia and serum alanine aminotransferase levels in the populations tested, suggesting the possibility that GBV-C/HGV does not cause apparent liver injury. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences of a portion of the 5' untranslated region and the E1 region of the viral genome identified, in addition to a previously reported then novel group of GBV-C/HGV variants (group 4), another novel group of variants (group 5). This result suggests that GBV-C/HGV can be classified into at least five genetic groups. GBV-C/HGV isolates of group 4 and group 5 were each shown to comprise approximately 40% of the total Indonesian isolates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)662-668
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Clinical Microbiology
Volume38
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2000

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