Hepatitis G Virus or GBV-C: A Natural Anti-HIV Interfering Virus

Bagasra, Omar; Sheraz, Muhammad; Pace, Donald Gene

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4899-6_18

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Given the proposed use of HPgV as a bio-therapeutic agent in the treatment of AIDS (Gretch, 2012), significant attention has been placed on understanding the epidemiology, evolution and genetic diversity of this virus (Bagasra et al , 2012; Wu et al , 2012). HPgV sorts into six genotypes with roughly distinct geographical origins (Muerhoff et al , 1996, 2005; Saito et al , 1998; Smith et al , 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep sequencing identifies two genotypes and high viral genetic diversity of human pegivirus (GB virus C) in rural Ugandan patients

Ghai

Sibley

Lauck

et al. 2013

Journal of General Virology

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Human pegivirus (HPgV), formerly 'GB virus C' or 'hepatitis G virus', is a member of the genus Flavivirus (Flaviviridae) that has garnered significant attention due to its inhibition of HIV, including slowing disease progression and prolonging survival in HIV-infected patients. Currently, there are six proposed HPgV genotypes that have roughly distinct geographical distributions. Genotypes 2 and 3 are the most comprehensively characterized, whereas those genotypes occurring on the African continent, where HPgV prevalence is highest, are less well studied. Using deep sequencing methods, we identified complete coding HPgV sequences in four of 28 patients (14.3 %) in rural Uganda, east Africa. One of these sequences corresponds to genotype 1 and is the first complete genome of this genotype from east Africa. The remaining three sequences correspond to genotype 5, a genotype that was previously considered exclusively South African. All four positive samples were collected within a geographical area of less than 25 km 2 , showing that multiple HPgV genotypes co-circulate in this area. Analysis of intra-host viral genetic diversity revealed that total single-nucleotide polymorphism frequency was approximately tenfold lower in HPgV than in hepatitis C virus. Finally, one patient was co-infected with HPgV and HIV, which, in combination with the high prevalence of HIV, suggests that this region would be a useful locale to study the interactions and co-evolution of these viruses. The nucleotide sequences reported in this study were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers KC618398-KC618401.

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