Novel hepatitis B virus subgenotype A6 in African-Belgian patients

作者：Pourkarim Mahmoud Reza; Lemey Philippe; Amini Bavil Olyaee Samad; Maes Piet; Van Ranst Marc^*

来源：Journal of Clinical Virology, 2010, 47(1): 93-96.

DOI：10.1016/j.jcv.2009.09.032

• Hepatitis B virus
• Novel subgenotype
• A6
• Full-length genome
• African-Belgian

Background: Genome diversity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is prominent among DNA viruses; which, allowed the virus to be genetically classified into eight genotypes and several subgenotypes.
Objective: To introduce and to characterize a novel subgenotype HBV, classified as A6.
Study design: HBV full-length genomes were isolated and sequenced from three African-Belgian patients chronically infected with the virus. Using phylogenetic reconstruction and genetic distance calculation, the evolutionary relationships of the novel strains were investigated.
Results: Phylogenetic analysis based on complete genome sequences of genotype A strains revealed distinct clusters supported by high bootstrap values. The three African-Belgian strains clustered separately from the other known A subgenotypes (A1-A5) with maximal bootstrap support (100%). The mean inter-subgenotypic nucleotide divergence over the complete genome sequence between the novel A6 strains and A1-A5 was higher than 4%.
Conclusion: Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome sequences yielded maximal bootstrap value support for nodes that establish the new lineage as a novel subgenotype. In addition, nucleotide divergence more than 4% based on full-length genome of the virus, clearly demonstrated that the three African-Belgian strains belonged to a novel subgenotype of HBV, which was assigned as "A6". Note-worthy, the phylogeny of genotype A demonstrated that the A6 is a basal lineage that diverged earlier from the other African subgenotypes of genotype A.

• 出版日期2010-1
• 单位河北医科大学