Genotypes And Its Clinical Significance Of Hepatitis C Virus In Guangxi Region

Objective To investigate the distribution characteristic of HCVgenotypes，and to explore the correlations of nationality，gender，age，routes ofinfection and HCN-RNA load with HCV genotypes.Methods Serum of158HCV-RNA positive patients was collected fromFebruary2011to May2013in Guangxi Region.The HCV NS5B region wassubjected to nested RT-PCR amplification and sequencing. The sequences werecompared with the complete genome sequences of standard strains registered inGenebank to construct the phylogenetic tree.Analysed the correlations betweenHCV genotypes and nationality，gender，age, routes of infection，HCV-RNAload，respectively.Results Among the158samples, a total of150samples weresuccessfully amplified and classified the genotypes. The result showed that themajor genotypes of HCV in Guangxi region were1b accounting for54.7%（82/150）,followed by6a,1a,3b,2a,3a,6d,the percentages were13.3%（20/150）,10%（15/150）,9.3%（14/150）,6.7%（10/150）,5.3%（8/150）,0.7%（1/150）,respectively.There were no significant correlations between HCVgenotypes and nationality and gender（P＞0.05）. But there were significantcorrelations between HCV genotypes and age, routes of infection and HCV-RNA load（P＜0.05）.21cases of HCV6genotype were detected(including20cases of6a subtype and1case of6d subtype)，accounting for14%(21/150).Phylogenetic analysis showed that the HCV6strains of Guangxiin evolution were similar to the standard strains come from Vietnam.Conclusions1.The accurate genotypes and subtypes can be obtained byestablishing the phylogenetic tree of HCV NS5B region.2. At present,therewere at least9subtypes in Guangxi region including2b and6b reported by theprevious studies. In our study,7subtypes (1a,1b,2a,3a,3b,6a,6d) were detectedand the main genotype was1b,followed by6a.3. Compared to the previousreports,our results indicated that the prevalence of1b seemed todecline.Nevertheless,the prevalence of6a tended to increase gradually.4.1bwas mainly found in≥40years group,most of which infected through bloodtransfusion and the HCV-RNA load was higher than that of the other genotypes.Genotype3and6a subtype were mainly found in younger intravenous drugusers.5. With the changing of the routes of infection,the distribution of HCVgenotype will also change.6. There is high homology between the HCV6strainsof Guangxi and the standard strain of Vietnam and the evolution distance is veryclose.