Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Jan;35(1):161–164. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.1.161-164.1997

Subtype 2c of hepatitis C virus is highly prevalent in Italy and is heterogeneous in the NS5A region.

F Maggi 1, M L Vatteroni 1, C Fornai 1, A Morrica 1, M Giorgi 1, M Bendinelli 1, M Pistello 1
PMCID: PMC229530  PMID: 8968899

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates, obtained from 50 Italian patients with community-acquired infection, that had previously been classified as subtype 2a or 2b by current rapid genotyping methods were further characterized by partial sequence analysis. All the isolates were reclassified: 45 within subtype 2c and the other 5 as subtype 1b, 3a, or 4d. Thus, subtype 2c is much more prevalent than previously recognized, with about 30% of all HCV strains detected in Italy being subtype 2c. In contrast, isolates of subtypes 2a and 2b appear to be infrequent, if not absent. Further studies showed that subtype 2c isolates are heterogeneous in the NS5A region, in that they may or may not contain a 57-nucleotide (nt) segment spanning from nt 7533 to nt 7589 of the viral genome. Partial nucleotide sequencing of the NS5B region of four 2c subtypes excluded the possibility that the isolates possessing or not possessing the 57-nt segment in the NS5A region may have resulted from recombination phenomena.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (261.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bukh J., Miller R. H., Purcell R. H. Genetic heterogeneity of hepatitis C virus: quasispecies and genotypes. Semin Liver Dis. 1995 Feb;15(1):41–63. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-1007262. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bukh J., Purcell R. H., Miller R. H. Sequence analysis of the core gene of 14 hepatitis C virus genotypes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Aug 16;91(17):8239–8243. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.17.8239. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cammarota G., Maggi F., Vatteroni M. L., Da Prato L., Barsanti L., Bendinelli M., Pistello M. Partial nucleotide sequencing of six subtype 2c hepatitis C viruses detected in Italy. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Oct;33(10):2781–2784. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.10.2781-2784.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Davidson F., Simmonds P., Ferguson J. C., Jarvis L. M., Dow B. C., Follett E. A., Seed C. R., Krusius T., Lin C., Medgyesi G. A. Survey of major genotypes and subtypes of hepatitis C virus using RFLP of sequences amplified from the 5' non-coding region. J Gen Virol. 1995 May;76(Pt 5):1197–1204. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-76-5-1197. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Enomoto N., Sakuma I., Asahina Y., Kurosaki M., Murakami T., Yamamoto C., Izumi N., Marumo F., Sato C. Comparison of full-length sequences of interferon-sensitive and resistant hepatitis C virus 1b. Sensitivity to interferon is conferred by amino acid substitutions in the NS5A region. J Clin Invest. 1995 Jul;96(1):224–230. doi: 10.1172/JCI118025. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Enomoto N., Sakuma I., Asahina Y., Kurosaki M., Murakami T., Yamamoto C., Ogura Y., Izumi N., Marumo F., Sato C. Mutations in the nonstructural protein 5A gene and response to interferon in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus 1b infection. N Engl J Med. 1996 Jan 11;334(2):77–81. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199601113340203. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Higgins D. G., Bleasby A. J., Fuchs R. CLUSTAL V: improved software for multiple sequence alignment. Comput Appl Biosci. 1992 Apr;8(2):189–191. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/8.2.189. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Okamoto H., Mishiro S. Genetic heterogeneity of hepatitis C virus. Intervirology. 1994;37(2):68–76. doi: 10.1159/000150360. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Okamoto H., Sugiyama Y., Okada S., Kurai K., Akahane Y., Sugai Y., Tanaka T., Sato K., Tsuda F., Miyakawa Y. Typing hepatitis C virus by polymerase chain reaction with type-specific primers: application to clinical surveys and tracing infectious sources. J Gen Virol. 1992 Mar;73(Pt 3):673–679. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-73-3-673. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Okamoto H., Tokita H., Sakamoto M., Horikita M., Kojima M., Iizuka H., Mishiro S. Characterization of the genomic sequence of type V (or 3a) hepatitis C virus isolates and PCR primers for specific detection. J Gen Virol. 1993 Nov;74(Pt 11):2385–2390. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-74-11-2385. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Panigrahi A. K., Roca J., Acharya S. K., Jameel S., Panda S. K. Genotype determination of hepatitis C virus from northern India: identification of a new subtype. J Med Virol. 1996 Feb;48(2):191–198. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-9071(199602)48:2<191::AID-JMV12>3.0.CO;2-I. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pistello M., Maggi F., Vatteroni L., Cecconi N., Panicucci F., Bresci G. P., Gambardella L., Taddei M., Bionda A., Tuoni M. Prevalence of hepatitis C virus genotypes in Italy. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Jan;32(1):232–234. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.1.232-234.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Simmonds P., Holmes E. C., Cha T. A., Chan S. W., McOmish F., Irvine B., Beall E., Yap P. L., Kolberg J., Urdea M. S. Classification of hepatitis C virus into six major genotypes and a series of subtypes by phylogenetic analysis of the NS-5 region. J Gen Virol. 1993 Nov;74(Pt 11):2391–2399. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-74-11-2391. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Simmonds P. Variability of hepatitis C virus. Hepatology. 1995 Feb;21(2):570–583. doi: 10.1002/hep.1840210243. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Stuyver L., Rossau R., Wyseur A., Duhamel M., Vanderborght B., Van Heuverswyn H., Maertens G. Typing of hepatitis C virus isolates and characterization of new subtypes using a line probe assay. J Gen Virol. 1993 Jun;74(Pt 6):1093–1102. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-74-6-1093. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tanaka T., Tsukiyama-Kohara K., Yamaguchi K., Yagi S., Tanaka S., Hasegawa A., Ohta Y., Hattori N., Kohara M. Significance of specific antibody assay for genotyping of hepatitis C virus. Hepatology. 1994 Jun;19(6):1347–1353. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Vatteroni M., Pistello M., Maggi F., Cecconi N., Panicucci F., Bendinelli M. Hepatitis C virus serological and polymerase chain reactions in human immunodeficiency virus-positive and -negative patients. Clin Diagn Virol. 1994 Feb;2(1):7–16. doi: 10.1016/0928-0197(94)90031-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES