Bassit L, Kleter B, Ribeiro-dos-Santos G, Maertens G, Sabino E, Chamone D, Quint W, Sáez-Alquézar A
Fundação Pró-Sangue Hemocentro de São Paulo, Brazil.
Vox Sang. 1998;74(2):83-7. doi: 10.1159/000030910.
Hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a recently discovered viral agent transmitted by blood, which was firstly identified in patients with acute or chronic liver disease. HGV prevalence in US blood donors was recently found to average 1-2%. We report a much higher HGV frequency among blood donors of São Paulo, Brazil.
200 serum samples were submitted to RT-PCR using primers directed to the 5' untranslated region and nonstructural 5A (NS5A) region. PCR products were analyzed by gel electrophoresis and Southern blot hybridization.
Of the 200 specimens, 18 (9%; 95% CI 5.4-13.8%) were positive by both sets of primers. Sequence analysis of the NS5A PCR products revealed a homology of 96.3%. Of the 18 HGV-positive samples, only one was positive for anti-HBc and all were anti-HCV- and HCV-RNA-negative.
Such a high prevalence of HGV in a nonsymptomatic population suggests that this is a benign agent.
庚型肝炎病毒（HGV）是一种最近发现的经血液传播的病毒病原体，最初在急性或慢性肝病患者中被鉴定出来。最近发现美国献血者中HGV感染率平均为1%-2%。我们报告了巴西圣保罗献血者中HGV感染率要高得多。
使用针对5'非翻译区和非结构5A（NS5A）区域的引物，对200份血清样本进行逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）。PCR产物通过凝胶电泳和Southern印迹杂交进行分析。
在200份标本中，两组引物检测均为阳性的有18份（9%；95%可信区间5.4%-13.8%）。NS5A PCR产物的序列分析显示同源性为96.3%。在18份HGV阳性样本中，仅1份抗-HBc呈阳性，所有样本抗-HCV和HCV-RNA均为阴性。
HGV在无症状人群中如此高的感染率表明这是一种良性病原体。
