Fiordalisi G, Zanella I, Mantero G, Bettinardi A, Stellini R, Paraninfo G, Cadeo G, Primi D
Cattedra di Chimica Applicata alle Scienze Biomediche, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Brescia, Italy.
J Infect Dis. 1996 Jul;174(1):181-3. doi: 10.1093/infdis/174.1.181.
Prevalence of the recently discovered GB virus C(GBV-C) was evaluated in a cohort of 49 Italian patients with acute or chronic hepatitis of unknown etiology (non-A-E hepatitis) and in a control group of 100 healthy blood donors. The GBV-C genomes could be detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with reverse transcription in 35% of the acute and 39% of the chronic hepatitis patients; only 1 of the control subjects had a positive response. All PCR products hybridized with a specific probe in a colorimetric assay, and the analysis of the sequences of the amplified cDNAs fully confirmed the specificity of the assay. Furthermore, the alignment of the predicted translation products identified two recurrent amino acid substitutions in 6 patients, suggesting the possible existence of at least 2 different GBV-C subtypes. Thus, GBV-C may be an important agent, contributing, at least in Italy, to a significant number of the cases of hepatitis of unknown etiology.
在一组49名病因不明（非甲 - 戊型肝炎）的急性或慢性肝炎意大利患者以及100名健康献血者组成的对照组中，评估了最近发现的GB病毒C（GBV - C）的流行情况。通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（PCR）可在35%的急性肝炎患者和39%的慢性肝炎患者中检测到GBV - C基因组；对照组中只有1名受试者反应呈阳性。所有PCR产物在比色测定中均与特异性探针杂交，扩增cDNA序列分析充分证实了该测定的特异性。此外，预测翻译产物的比对在6名患者中鉴定出两个反复出现的氨基酸取代，提示可能至少存在2种不同的GBV - C亚型。因此，GBV - C可能是一种重要病原体，至少在意大利，它导致了相当数量病因不明的肝炎病例。
