Viral Genotypes Of Acute Sporadic Hepatitis E Virus Cases In Anqing District

Objective To understand the varietied characteristic of biomarkers of HEV in AnQing district, to analyze the relationship among hepatitis E virus (HEV) biomarkers and their genotype distribution and epidemiology, to provide the early diagnosis of HEV infection.Methods 46 sera were collected from the patients with clinical diagnosis of sporadic acute hepatitis. All the sera were tested for anti-HEV IgG,IgM antibodies and RNA with real-time fluorescent RT-PCR, respectively. To apply reverse transcriptase PCR and type-specific primers on partial cases of HEV RNA specimens for sequencing and genotyping.Results Among 46 clinical diagnostic hepatitis E cases,36 appeared with rising HEV-IgG titre,41 and 39 were positive respectively with HEV-IgM and HEV RNA. The proportion of accordance between HEV-IgM and HEV-IgG, HEV-IgM and HEV RNA, HEV-IgG and HEV RNA were separately 88.2%,85.3%and 83.8%. A 494-nt nucleotide fragment within HEV RNA ORF1 was amplified in 27 serum samples and a 150-nt nucleotide fragment within ORF2 was amplified in 15 samples, respectively. All viral strains belonged to genotype IV.Conclusion The combinational detection of immunological with viral biomarkers would be helpful in early diagnosis of HEV infection. The dominant genotypes of clinical hepatitis E patients in AnQing district belonged to genotype 4.