Genotypes Distribution Of HCV In FUJIAN Province And Amino Acids Discrepancies Among The Core Proteins

Hepatitis C virus was a positive-strand RNA virus with genome of approximately 9.4Kb in length. Infection of hepatitis C virus would lead to hepatitis C , which progressed rapidly and resulted in cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. At least six major genotypes of HCV, each comprising multiple subtypes, have been identified worldwide with the different regional distributions. Clinical manifestations and response to interferon-αtreatment differed from the infection of HCV with different genotypes . Study on the structural and functional variations of HCV genes with different genotypes will be helpful to predict accurately the prognosis of hepatitis C , and choose the optimal therapeutic regimen. The aim of this study is to detect the genotype distribution of HCV in FUJIAN province and compare amino acids discrepancies of the HCV core protein with different genotypes.In the first part of the study, the partial of HCV core gene, which located in -12nt― +343nt, was amplified by nested RT-PCR from the HCV antibody positive serum , and the amplified DNA were cloned and sequenced. Sequences were analyzed by Clustalw software to determine the genotypes distribution of HCV in FUJIAN province. The result indicated that 42 out of 102 HCV antibody positive serums were HCV positive, there were four genotypes, i.e., 1b, 2a, 3b, 6a were detected , which the 6 a and 1 b were predominant.In the second part of the study, Full-length of HCV core gene with four different genotypes were amplified separately by RT-PCR, and the amino acids discrepancies among the core proteins were analyzed. The results demonstrated that there were 33 amino acids variations among four HCV core proteins, mainly of them located in five clustered regions: 4aa-21aa,68aa-78aa,106aa-121aa,139aa-163aa and 182aa-191aa as well. Amino acids variations within Core proteins may result in functional...