Detection of the disease severity-related molecular differences among new Thai dengue-2 isolates in 1993, based on their structural proteins and major non-structural protein NS1 sequences.

We determined the nucleotide sequences of the whole structural protein gene of four new dengue-2 viruses by the primer extension dideoxy chain termination method, using multiple cDNA clones for six overlapping gene regions. The nucleotide sequences of the major non-structural protein NS1 gene of these viruses were also determined by direct sequencing of the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction products. These viruses were isolated from dengue patients with different clinical severities in Nakhon Phanom, Northeastern Thailand in 1993. The results were compared with the sequences of prototype New Guinea C strain and other reference strains. All four viruses revealed highest homology to New Guinea C strain. The homology between each of the four strains and New Guinea C strain varies from 95.09% to 95.29% in its nucleotide sequences, and from 97.24% to 97.78% in its amino acid sequences covering all structural proteins and NS1 protein. The PreM region shows the highest divergence (6.59% to 7.32%) in its nucleotide sequence, whereas C protein is most highly conserved (only 1.75% to 2.63% divergence). Our data showed that there are certain molecular differences in the genomic structure of these four new isolates, which indicate the possibility that these changes are related with the virulence of the virus strains.