Stelzl Evelyn, Haas Bernhard, Bauer Bernd, Zhang Sherry, Fiss Ellen H, Hillman Grantland, Hamilton Aaron T, Mehta Rochak, Heil Marintha L, Marins Ed G, Santner Brigitte I, Kessler Harald H
Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital Graz-West, Graz, Austria.
PLoS One. 2017 Jul 25;12(7):e0181273. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181273. eCollection 2017.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) intergenotypic recombinant forms have been reported for various HCV genotypes/subtypes in several countries worldwide. In a recent study, four patients living in Austria had been identified to be possibly infected with a recombinant HCV strain. To clarify results and determine the point of recombination, full-genome next-generation sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq v2 300 cycle kit (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) was performed in the present study. Samples of all of the patients contained the recombinant HCV strain 2k/1b. The point of recombination was found to be within the HCV NS2 gene between nucleotide positions 3189-3200 based on H77 numbering. While three of four patients were male and had migration background from Chechnya (n = 2) and Azerbaijan (n = 1), the forth patient was a female born in Austria. Three of the four patients including the female had intravenous drug abuse as a risk factor for HCV transmission. While sequencing techniques are limited to a few specialized laboratories, a genotyping assay that uses both ends of the HCV genome should be employed to identify patients infected with a recombinant HCV strain. The correct identification of recombinant strains also has an impact considering the tailored choice of anti-HCV treatment.
在全球多个国家，已报道了丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）的基因型间重组形式，涉及多种HCV基因型/亚型。在最近一项研究中，已确定奥地利的四名患者可能感染了重组HCV毒株。为了明确结果并确定重组位点，本研究使用Illumina MiSeq v2 300循环试剂盒（Illumina，美国加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥）进行了全基因组二代测序。所有患者的样本均含有重组HCV毒株2k/1b。基于H77编号，发现重组位点位于HCV NS2基因内核苷酸位置3189 - 3200之间。四名患者中有三名是男性，分别有来自车臣（n = 2）和阿塞拜疆（n = 1）的移民背景，第四名患者是一名出生在奥地利的女性。包括该女性在内的四名患者中有三名有静脉注射吸毒史，这是HCV传播的一个危险因素。虽然测序技术仅限于少数专业实验室，但应采用一种使用HCV基因组两端的基因分型检测方法来识别感染重组HCV毒株的患者。考虑到抗HCV治疗的针对性选择，正确识别重组毒株也具有重要意义。
