Foley B, O'Mahony J, Hill C, Morgan J G
Department of Microbiology, University College, Cork, Ireland.
J Med Virol. 2001 Oct;65(2):388-94. doi: 10.1002/jmv.2046.
Norwalk-like viruses (NLVs) are now established as the most important causative agents of epidemic gastroenteritis worldwide. The overall objective of this study was to determine the molecular epidemiology of Irish NLV isolates for the first time by obtaining sequence data from specimens originating from outbreaks and sporadic cases of gastroenteritis. Eight samples from sporadic cases of gastroenteritis and nine isolates from separate NLV outbreaks were examined. Of the sporadic isolates, six were shown to be genogroup 2 (G2) by RT-PCR, while two were G1. All of the outbreak isolates were G2. All isolates were partially sequenced within a highly conserved region of ORF1 (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene). Sequence data were aligned and a dendogram was constructed. The results indicated that the majority of G2 isolates were seen to cluster with Bristol and Lordsdale virus, while the two G1 specimens were related most closely to Southampton virus. Further downstream sequence analysis of a number of the isolates confirmed this result. It is concluded that the majority of NLV isolates circulating in Ireland belong to the Bristol/Lordsdale clade.
诺如病毒（NLVs）现已被确认为全球流行性肠胃炎最重要的病原体。本研究的总体目标是通过获取来自肠胃炎暴发和散发病例标本的序列数据，首次确定爱尔兰诺如病毒分离株的分子流行病学。对来自肠胃炎散发病例的8个样本和来自不同诺如病毒暴发的9个分离株进行了检测。在散发病例分离株中，6株经逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）显示为基因群2（G2），2株为G1。所有暴发分离株均为G2。所有分离株均在开放阅读框1（RNA依赖的RNA聚合酶基因）的高度保守区域内进行了部分测序。对序列数据进行比对并构建了系统树。结果表明，大多数G2分离株与布里斯托尔病毒和洛兹代尔病毒聚集在一起，而两个G1样本与南安普敦病毒关系最为密切。对一些分离株的进一步下游序列分析证实了这一结果。得出的结论是，在爱尔兰流行的大多数诺如病毒分离株属于布里斯托尔/洛兹代尔分支。
