Maggi F, Vatteroni M L, Fornai C, Morrica A, Giorgi M, Bendinelli M, Pistello M
Virology Section, University of Pisa, Italy.
J Clin Microbiol. 1997 Jan;35(1):161-4. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.1.161-164.1997.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates, obtained from 50 Italian patients with community-acquired infection, that had previously been classified as subtype 2a or 2b by current rapid genotyping methods were further characterized by partial sequence analysis. All the isolates were reclassified: 45 within subtype 2c and the other 5 as subtype 1b, 3a, or 4d. Thus, subtype 2c is much more prevalent than previously recognized, with about 30% of all HCV strains detected in Italy being subtype 2c. In contrast, isolates of subtypes 2a and 2b appear to be infrequent, if not absent. Further studies showed that subtype 2c isolates are heterogeneous in the NS5A region, in that they may or may not contain a 57-nucleotide (nt) segment spanning from nt 7533 to nt 7589 of the viral genome. Partial nucleotide sequencing of the NS5B region of four 2c subtypes excluded the possibility that the isolates possessing or not possessing the 57-nt segment in the NS5A region may have resulted from recombination phenomena.
从50例意大利社区获得性感染患者中分离出的丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）毒株，此前通过当前快速基因分型方法被分类为2a或2b亚型，通过部分序列分析进一步进行特征鉴定。所有分离株均被重新分类：45株属于2c亚型，另外5株分别为1b、3a或4d亚型。因此，2c亚型比之前认识到的更为普遍，在意大利检测到的所有HCV毒株中约30%为2c亚型。相比之下，2a和2b亚型的分离株即便不是完全没有，似乎也很罕见。进一步研究表明，2c亚型分离株在NS5A区域存在异质性，即它们可能含有也可能不含有一段从病毒基因组第7533位核苷酸到第7589位核苷酸的57个核苷酸（nt）片段。对4个2c亚型的NS5B区域进行部分核苷酸测序排除了在NS5A区域拥有或不拥有57-nt片段的分离株可能是重组现象导致的可能性。
