Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1993 Jul;67(7):4365–4368. doi: 10.1128/jvi.67.7.4365-4368.1993

A unique, predominant hepatitis C virus variant found in an infant born to a mother with multiple variants.

A J Weiner 1, M M Thaler 1, K Crawford 1, K Ching 1, J Kansopon 1, D Y Chien 1, J E Hall 1, F Hu 1, M Houghton 1
PMCID: PMC237807  PMID: 8389933

Abstract

To demonstrate vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) from an HCV-infected, non-human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected mother to her infant and to assess the distribution of viral species in the mother and infant, the hypervariable region of the gene encoding the putative envelope glycoprotein E2 (E2HV) was sequenced in three mothers and one mother-infant pair. The data indicate that (i) quasi-species distributions of HCV E2HV variants were found in all four mothers, (ii) a single predominant HCV E2HV variant was found in the infant of a mother shown to have nine predominant E2HV variants, and (iii) the infant's E2HV variant was highly related to, but not identical with, the nine variants identified in the mother at the time of birth. These findings indicate that HCV is transmitted from mother to infant and raise the possibility that the transmission occurs in utero.

Full text

PDF
4368

Selected References

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

  1. Alter M. J., Hadler S. C., Judson F. N., Mares A., Alexander W. J., Hu P. Y., Miller J. K., Moyer L. A., Fields H. A., Bradley D. W. Risk factors for acute non-A, non-B hepatitis in the United States and association with hepatitis C virus infection. JAMA. 1990 Nov 7;264(17):2231–2235. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Alter M. J., Margolis H. S., Krawczynski K., Judson F. N., Mares A., Alexander W. J., Hu P. Y., Miller J. K., Gerber M. A., Sampliner R. E. The natural history of community-acquired hepatitis C in the United States. The Sentinel Counties Chronic non-A, non-B Hepatitis Study Team. N Engl J Med. 1992 Dec 31;327(27):1899–1905. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199212313272702. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chien D. Y., Choo Q. L., Tabrizi A., Kuo C., McFarland J., Berger K., Lee C., Shuster J. R., Nguyen T., Moyer D. L. Diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection using an immunodominant chimeric polyprotein to capture circulating antibodies: reevaluation of the role of HCV in liver disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Nov 1;89(21):10011–10015. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.21.10011. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Giovannini M., Tagger A., Ribero M. L., Zuccotti G., Pogliani L., Grossi A., Ferroni P., Fiocchi A. Maternal-infant transmission of hepatitis C virus and HIV infections: a possible interaction. Lancet. 1990 May 12;335(8698):1166–1166. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(90)91174-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hijikata M., Kato N., Ootsuyama Y., Nakagawa M., Ohkoshi S., Shimotohno K. Hypervariable regions in the putative glycoprotein of hepatitis C virus. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1991 Feb 28;175(1):220–228. doi: 10.1016/s0006-291x(05)81223-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Houghton M., Weiner A., Han J., Kuo G., Choo Q. L. Molecular biology of the hepatitis C viruses: implications for diagnosis, development and control of viral disease. Hepatology. 1991 Aug;14(2):381–388. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Inoue Y., Miyamura T., Unayama T., Takahashi K., Saito I. Maternal transfer of HCV. Nature. 1991 Oct 17;353(6345):609–609. doi: 10.1038/353609a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Inoue Y., Takeuchi K., Chou W. H., Unayama T., Takahashi K., Saito I., Miyamura T. Silent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C virus through two generations determined by comparative nucleotide sequence analysis of the viral cDNA. J Infect Dis. 1992 Dec;166(6):1425–1428. doi: 10.1093/infdis/166.6.1425. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kuroki T., Nishiguchi S., Fukuda K., Shiomi S., Monna T., Murata R., Isshiki G., Hayashi N., Shikata T., Kobayashi K. Mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C virus. J Infect Dis. 1991 Aug;164(2):427–429. doi: 10.1093/infdis/164.2.427. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Martell M., Esteban J. I., Quer J., Genescà J., Weiner A., Esteban R., Guardia J., Gómez J. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) circulates as a population of different but closely related genomes: quasispecies nature of HCV genome distribution. J Virol. 1992 May;66(5):3225–3229. doi: 10.1128/jvi.66.5.3225-3229.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Messing J. New M13 vectors for cloning. Methods Enzymol. 1983;101:20–78. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(83)01005-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ogata N., Alter H. J., Miller R. H., Purcell R. H. Nucleotide sequence and mutation rate of the H strain of hepatitis C virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Apr 15;88(8):3392–3396. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.8.3392. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Okamoto H., Kojima M., Okada S., Yoshizawa H., Iizuka H., Tanaka T., Muchmore E. E., Peterson D. A., Ito Y., Mishiro S. Genetic drift of hepatitis C virus during an 8.2-year infection in a chimpanzee: variability and stability. Virology. 1992 Oct;190(2):894–899. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(92)90933-g. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Reinus J. F., Leikin E. L., Alter H. J., Cheung L., Shindo M., Jett B., Piazza S., Shih J. W. Failure to detect vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Dec 1;117(11):881–886. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-117-11-881. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Saiki R. K., Gelfand D. H., Stoffel S., Scharf S. J., Higuchi R., Horn G. T., Mullis K. B., Erlich H. A. Primer-directed enzymatic amplification of DNA with a thermostable DNA polymerase. Science. 1988 Jan 29;239(4839):487–491. doi: 10.1126/science.2448875. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Shimizu Y. K., Weiner A. J., Rosenblatt J., Wong D. C., Shapiro M., Popkin T., Houghton M., Alter H. J., Purcell R. H. Early events in hepatitis C virus infection of chimpanzees. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Aug;87(16):6441–6444. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6441. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Thaler M. M., Park C. K., Landers D. V., Wara D. W., Houghton M., Veereman-Wauters G., Sweet R. L., Han J. H. Vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus. Lancet. 1991 Jul 6;338(8758):17–18. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)90006-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Weiner A. J., Brauer M. J., Rosenblatt J., Richman K. H., Tung J., Crawford K., Bonino F., Saracco G., Choo Q. L., Houghton M. Variable and hypervariable domains are found in the regions of HCV corresponding to the flavivirus envelope and NS1 proteins and the pestivirus envelope glycoproteins. Virology. 1991 Feb;180(2):842–848. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(91)90104-j. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Weiner A. J., Geysen H. M., Christopherson C., Hall J. E., Mason T. J., Saracco G., Bonino F., Crawford K., Marion C. D., Crawford K. A. Evidence for immune selection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) putative envelope glycoprotein variants: potential role in chronic HCV infections. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Apr 15;89(8):3468–3472. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.8.3468. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Wejstål R., Widell A., Månsson A. S., Hermodsson S., Norkrans G. Mother-to-infant transmission of hepatitis C virus. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Dec 1;117(11):887–890. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-117-11-887. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wolinsky S. M., Wike C. M., Korber B. T., Hutto C., Parks W. P., Rosenblum L. L., Kunstman K. J., Furtado M. R., Muñoz J. L. Selective transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 variants from mothers to infants. Science. 1992 Feb 28;255(5048):1134–1137. doi: 10.1126/science.1546316. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES