Lampe E, Saback F L, Viazov S, Roggendorf M, Niel C
Department of Virology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
J Med Virol. 1998 Sep;56(1):39-43.
The recently discovered GBV-C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV) has been shown to be parenterally transmitted. The occurrence of community-acquired GBV-C/HGV infections has also been reported. In order to study the variations with age of the GBV-C/HGV prevalence, sera from 268 individuals without liver disease, aged 0-80 years, and living in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were tested by reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction for the presence of GBV-C/HGV RNA. Age-specific seroprevalence was low (2.3%) among children under the age of 10, reached a maximum of 18% in young adults (21-30 years), and declined in older age groups. Among 170 blood donors aged 18-60, the rate of individuals with antibodies against the viral envelope E2 protein increased with age, from about 6% between the ages of 18 and 24 to about 35% for individuals from the age of 43 to 60. The results suggest that sexual transmission of GBV-C/HGV might occur and that the virus could be eliminated after a long period of infection. The nucleotide sequences of GBV-C/HGV genome fragments, 422 base pairs (bp) in the E2 region and 354 bp in the nonstructural 5 region, were determined for 11 and 31 isolates, respectively. Phylogenetic tree based on concatenated E2 + NS5 sequences showed that Brazilian strains belonged to three clusters, two of which were previously characterized as genotypes 1 and 2.
最近发现的GBV-C/庚型肝炎病毒（GBV-C/HGV）已被证明可经肠道外传播。也有关于社区获得性GBV-C/HGV感染发生情况的报道。为研究GBV-C/HGV流行率随年龄的变化，对268名无肝脏疾病、年龄在0至80岁、居住在巴西里约热内卢市的个体血清进行逆转录巢式聚合酶链反应检测，以确定是否存在GBV-C/HGV RNA。10岁以下儿童的年龄特异性血清阳性率较低（2.3%），在年轻成年人（21至30岁）中达到最高值18%，并在老年人群中下降。在170名年龄在18至60岁的献血者中，抗病毒包膜E2蛋白抗体阳性个体的比例随年龄增加，从18至24岁之间的约6%增至43至60岁个体的约35%。结果表明GBV-C/HGV可能通过性传播，且该病毒在长期感染后可能被清除。分别对11株和31株分离株测定了GBV-C/HGV基因组片段的核苷酸序列，E2区域为422个碱基对（bp），非结构5区域为354 bp。基于E2 + NS5串联序列构建的系统发育树表明，巴西毒株属于三个簇，其中两个簇先前被鉴定为1型和2型基因型。
