A Genotype IV Hepatitis E Virus Strain That May Be Indigenous to Changchun, China

Abstract

We sequenced the RNA genome of hepatitis E virus (HEV) recovered from an acute hepatitis patient living in Changchun, China. The HEV-CCC220 isolate thus obtained was 7,193 nt in length and contained ORF1 (5,121 nt, 1,706 aa), ORF2 (2,025 nt, 674 aa), and ORF3 (345 nt, 114 aa) plus uncompleted 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions. When compared with full-genome isolates so far reported, the CCC220 isolate segregated to genotype IV although the nucleotide similarity to the previous genotype IV isolates was only 83.9–85.6%. Comparison of a partial sequence (300 nt) within the ORF2 between the genotype IV isolates from China, Taiwan and Japan also indicated the phylogenetic uniqueness of the CCC220 isolate: even the highest homology was less than 90%. These findings suggest that the CCC220 isolate might represent HEV strains that are indigenous to Changchun, China.

Phylogenetic analysis of global hepatitis E virus sequences: genetic diversity, subtypes and zoonosis

“…HE-JVN1 represented an indigenous Vietnamese HEV strain and therefore clustered with five Vietnamese isolates. With partial ORF1, ORF2, or complete genome sequence, CCC220 [99] was distinct from all other genotype 4 sequences (Figures 1, 2 and 4). Two isolates E000-NGS96 from Japan and V228 from Vietnam [107] formed a new group with a bootstrap value of 86%.…”

“…TW32SW and TW5483E had 95% sequence homology. Two isolates represented by dashed branches ( Figure 1) were also from China: CCC220 from the northeast (Changchun) [99] and TW2896E from Taiwan [Wu et al, unpublished]. However, another isolate represented by a dashed branch, swSB66, was from Bali, Indonesia where there is a custom of raising domestic pigs in a large part of the population [51].…”

“…Two possibilities are: (1) all Japanese genotype 3 isolates represent imported HEV strains; or (2) HEV genotype 3 was undersampled in other Asian countries. Since a great number of genotype 4 sequences were characterised in China [8,45,98,99], Taiwan [57] and in Japan [10][11][12][13]48,87,[101][102][103], it appears that the first possibility is the most likely. Among all Asian countries, Japan feature as a 'western' country with a long Analysis of global HEV sequences Analysis of global HEV sequences 27 27 history of an 'open door policy' and has depended enormously on trading with the western world.…”

Analysis of the full-length genome of genotype 4 hepatitis E virus isolates from patients with fulminant or acute self-limited hepatitis E

“…To investigate nucleotide differences that may be related to fulminant hepatitis, the nine full-length sequences of HEV determined in this study were examined along with 13 previously reported, entire or nearly entire HEV sequences [Wang et al, 2000;Kuno et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2003;Nishizawa et al, 2003;Takahashi et al, 2003Takahashi et al, , 2004Takahashi et al, , 2005. No nucleotide substitutions within the 5 0 -and 3 0 -untranslated regions were specific for the HEV isolates from patients with fulminant hepatitis, although some of the reported isolates lacked the extreme 5 0 -terminal part of the 5 0 -untranslated region.…”

Complete sequence of a Kyrgyzstan swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) isolated from a piglet thought to be experimentally infected with human HEV

“…HEV isolated from swine has been classified as genotype 3 and genotype 4 [Meng et al, 1997;Liu et al, 2003]. In the non-endemic countries such as the United States and Japan, HEV isolated from humans with non-travel-related sporadic hepatitis E is the same genotype as HEV isolated from swine Takahashi et al, 2001].…”