Paper # 646
Molecular Epidemiology of HCV Genotypes among Injection Drug Users in Taiwan: Identification of a New Subtype 6v and Unique Recombinant Form_2b6v
Y-M Lee1,2,3,4, H-J Lin3,5, Y-J Chen3,4, C-M Lee1, S-F Wang5, K-Y Chang1, T-L Chen1,2, Hsin-Fu Liu*5, and Y-M Chen1,2,4
1AIDS Prevention and Res Ctr, Natl Yang-Ming Univ, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Inst of Publ Hlth, Natl Yang-Ming Univ Sch of Med, Taipei, Taiwan; 3St Paul’s Hosp, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan; 4Natl Yang-Ming Univ Sch of Life Sci, Taipei, Taiwan; and 5Natl Yang-Ming Univ Sch of Biomed Sci and Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan
Background: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)
circulating recombinant form (CRF) 07_BC strain has caused serious outbreaks among
injection drug users (IDU) in Taiwan since 2004. The objective of this study was
to conduct a molecular epidemiological analysis of HCV genotypes in Taiwanese
IDUs.
Methods: Blood samples and questionnaires from 591
HIV-1-infected IDU were collected nationwide. In total, 180 samples were
selected for HCV genotyping using multiplex PCR and phylogenetic analysis of
core, E1, and NS5B regions. Inno-Lipa assay was used to confirm multiple
infections.
Results: Eighty percent had single infection with 1b
as the most common subtype (24%), 12% had double infections and 2 had triple
infections. In addition, 3 recombinant forms (RFs)-2a1a, 3a1b, and 2b6v have been identified. Phylogenetic analyses showed that 3a, 6a and 6n strains were clustered with those strains present in Thailand and mainland China. Full-length sequence analysis showed 2 6v strains shared 89.4% to 90.2%
sequence homology with a 6(r) strain from Guangdong Province, China. Bootscan analysis revealed that the recombination breakpoint of RF_2b6v was located at the
NS2-NS3 junction.
Conclusions: The distributions of HCV genotypes
among Taiwanese IDU were complicated. The full-length genomes of a new subtype 6v
and RF_2b6v have been characterized.
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