Prevalence and Phylogenetic Analysis of TT Virus DNA in Western India

Abstract

In western India, TT virus (TTV) DNA positivity varied from 6.7% (5 of 75) in chronic hepatitis patients to 24.4% (10 of 41) in hemophiliacs; 7.4% (4 of 54) of voluntary blood donors had circulating TTV DNA. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a predominance of genotype 1a. In India, TTV is transmitted mainly by nonparenteral routes and is not an important cause of chronic liver diseases.

Role of transfusion‐transmitted virus in acute viral hepatitis and fulminant hepatic failure of unknown etiology

“…In the present study, TTV‐DNA was detected much more frequently, not only in AVH (80%) and FHF (76%) patients, but also in healthy blood donors (52%) when compared with those reported from other parts of the world, including India 2,11 , 12,17 . The present prevalence rate of TTV infection of 52% (26/50) in volunteer blood donors is similar to that reported from other developing countries such as Gambia and Brazil 18,19 .…”

“…Recent reports from Japan and other parts of the world show a prevalence rate of 52–92% among a healthy population 13,14,20 . These prevalence rates are much higher than those reported earlier from Japan and Western countries 2,11 , 12,17 …”

Development of an Immunoassay for Detection of Torque Teno Virus (TTV) Antibodies Using the N22 Expression Product from TTV Genotype 2

“…TTV genotype 1 was the predominant genotype in our study population, while few cases of genotype 2 were also reported. These results are in consonance with those of previous studies from India [41,42], including from our own center [36]. Our findings indicate that both assays were equally effective in detecting anti-TTV antibodies irrespective of the TTV genotype, possibly indicating a lack of genotype specificity of the antibodies detected.…”

Molecular Epidemiology and Clinical Implications of TT Virus (TTV) Infection in Indian Subjects

“…In our study, we found the prevalence of TTV among the healthy control subjects to be 28% using ORF1 specific primers, which is higher than the 7.4% prevalence reported by an earlier Indian study, 37 which used another set of ORF1 primers previously described by Simmonds et al 10 The discordance in the prevalence rates between the two studies may have been due to the variance in the choice of primers employed. It has been said that TTV viremia rates tend to increase with age and seem to peak in young adulthood.…”

“…Earlier, this was also reported as the most prevalent strain in India. 37 Moreover, genotype 1 is the TTV genotype most frequently contended to have specific disease association. 7,[18][19][20]33 The role of the virus in liver pathology has been repeatedly deliberated.…”