Watanabe Shunji, Morimoto Naoki, Miura Kouichi, Takaoka Yoshinari, Nomoto Hiroaki, Tsukui Mamiko, Isoda Norio, Ohnishi Hiroshi, Nagashima Shigeo, Takahashi Masaharu, Okamoto Hiroaki, Yamamoto Hironori
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Japan.
Division of Virology, Department of Infection and Immunity, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Japan.
Hepatol Res. 2019 May;49(5):521-530. doi: 10.1111/hepr.13313. Epub 2019 Feb 20.
The major transmission mode of hepatitis A virus (HAV) in Japan is the fecal-oral route by contaminated foods. In contrast, HAV infection is well documented as a sexually transmitted disease in Europe and North America. The present study was undertaken to determine the full-genome sequence of HAV and trace the transmission route of HAV in Japanese men who have sex with men (MSM).
In 2018, we encountered three Japanese MSM with acute hepatitis A co-infected with HIV for 4-12 years. Serum samples obtained from these patients were used for HAV full-genome analyses.
Isolated HAV strains were segregated into subgenotype IA. The three HAV strains shared 100% identity within the 481-nucleotide partial sequence. The entire nucleotide sequence showed that the three strains were 99.97% similar to each other with only two nucleotide substitutions. At the amino acid level, the three strains differed from each other by only one or two amino acids. All three strains obtained in the present study were >99.6% identical to the 66 reported strains isolated from Taiwan and European countries during 2015-2017. In addition, these 66 strains include the RIVM-HAV16-090 (EuroPride) strain, which has been involved in HAV outbreaks among MSM worldwide.
We determined for the first time the full-genome sequence of HAV isolated from Japanese MSM with acute hepatitis A and found that the strains were identical to those from MSM worldwide. Thus, these HAV strains were imported to Japan from foreign countries through MSM.
在日本，甲型肝炎病毒（HAV）的主要传播途径是通过受污染食物的粪-口途径。相比之下，在欧洲和北美，HAV感染作为一种性传播疾病已有充分记录。本研究旨在确定HAV的全基因组序列，并追踪日本男男性行为者（MSM）中HAV的传播途径。
2018年，我们遇到了3名患有急性甲型肝炎且合并感染HIV 4至12年的日本MSM。从这些患者身上获取的血清样本用于HAV全基因组分析。
分离出的HAV毒株被归入IA亚基因型。这3株HAV毒株在481个核苷酸的部分序列内具有100%的同一性。完整的核苷酸序列显示，这3个毒株彼此之间相似度为99.97%，仅有两个核苷酸替换。在氨基酸水平上，这3个毒株彼此之间仅相差1个或2个氨基酸。本研究中获得的所有3个毒株与2015 - 2017年期间从台湾和欧洲国家分离出的66株报告毒株的同一性均>99.6%。此外，这66株毒株包括RIVM - HAV16 - 090（欧洲骄傲）毒株，该毒株曾在全球男男性行为者中引发HAV疫情。
我们首次确定了从患有急性甲型肝炎的日本男男性行为者中分离出的HAV的全基因组序列，并发现这些毒株与全球男男性行为者中的毒株相同。因此，这些HAV毒株是通过男男性行为者从国外传入日本的。
