Investigation of adenovirus infection in hospitalized children with diarrhea during 2010 in Beijing, China / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The study was designed to evaluate adenovirus infection in hospitalized children with diarrhea.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Stool specimens were collected from 519 hospitalized children with diarrhea during 2010, including those defined as community-acquired diarrhea (CAD) who developed diarrhea symptoms within 48 hours after admission, and those defined as hospital-acquired diarrhea (HAD) whose symptoms of diarrhea occurred beyond 48 hours after admission. PCR was employed to identify adenovirus in fecal samples by using universal primers for adenoviruses of all types, and specific primers for adenovirus group F. PCR products with expected size were sequenced for adenovirus typing. Clinical data for children with adenovirus positive specimens were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>A total of 519 hospitalized children, including 289 with CAD and 230 with HAD, were enrolled in the study. Out of 519 stool specimens, 76 showed PCR products with expected 301 bp and identified as adenovirus by sequencing, and the overall positive rate was 14.6%. Out of 289 CAD samples, 43 were positive (positive rate was 14.9%). Of them, 20 were identified as enteric adenovirus infection (adenovirus type 41, Ad41). Thirty-three out of 230 HAD samples were positive (positive rate was 14.3%). Of them, 13 were characterized as enteric adenovirus infection (one was Ad40 and others were Ad41). Ad41 in this study could be divided into two genotypes by phylogenetic tree analysis. Non-enteric adenoviruses were identified in 43 specimens (43/76, 56.6%) including 5 of serotype 1, 8 of serotype 2, 15 of serotype 3, 10 of serotype 7, 1 of serotype 12, and 4 of serotype 31. In this study, the positive rate of adenovirus between CAD children and HAD children did not differ (χ(2) = 0.03, P > 0.05), while the positive rate of enteric adenovirus was high in CAD children.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Adenovirus infection was the main cause of diarrhea in hospitalized children. In this study, the positive rate of adenovirus was similar between children with CAD and with HAD. Enteric adenovirus (adenovirus group F) was the most common adenovirus serotype detected in 2010 in Beijing, and Ad41 was the dominant type.</p>

Detection and genotyping of human bocavirus 2 in children with acute diarrhea / 病毒学报

To investigate the prevalence of HBoV2 in pediatric patients with acute diarrhea in Beijing and the characteristic of the genome of the virus, 553 stool specimens were collected from pediatric outpatients with acute diarrhea in Affiliated Children's Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics during Nov. 2010 to Oct. 2011. TaqMan-based Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect HBoV2 DNA from these specimens. Two positive specimens with high viral loads were selected for segmented amplification and then the amplified fragments were cloned into the plasmid vector pGEM-T, transformed into Escherichia coli DH5alpha and sequenced. Then genomic sequences assembled from those DNA fragments were compared with other parvovirus genomic sequences in the GenBank. Among these 553 specimens tested, 15 (2.7%) were HBoV2 DNA positive. The highest positive rate was shown in July (7.0%) through the whole year and in 3-6 month age group (4.1%) among different age groups. All these 15 specimens positive for HBoV2 DNA were collected from patients younger than 2 years old, including 4 simultaneously positive for norovirus, 3 positive for rotavirus and 1 positive for adenovirus. By sequence analysis, 2 almost complete HBoV2 genomic sequences assembled from gene fragments amplified from specimens BJQ19 and BJQ390 were typical HBoV2. And they shared high homology with each other (99.2%), while they shared the highest homology with FJ375129 from Shanghai China (99.1% and 99.2%) among other parvoviruses. These data suggest that some of acute diarrhea in pediatric patients in Beijing were associated with HBoV2, and infants and young children aged from 3 months to 2 years, are more likely to be infected by HBoV2.

Investigation of a novel VP4 subgenotype of rotavirus in children with diarrhea in Beijing during 2009-2010 / 病毒学报

P[8]b is a newly discovered sub-genotype for VP4 gene of group A human rotaviruses (HRV) worldwide. This study was to develop an effective method to identify P[8]a, P[8]b, P[4] and P[6] (sub) genotypes of VP4 genes of HRV and to investigate the prevalence of P[8]b sub-genotype and its G/P combinations of HRV in outpatient and inpatient children with diarrhea in Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics from 2009 to 2010. By analyzing the collected nucleotide sequences of VP4 gene for all known P genotypes of HRV including P[8]b subtype from GenBank and using softwares of DNAS-tar and MegAlign to align and analyze multiple sequences, probes for P[8]a, P[8]b, P[4] and P[6] (sub) genotypes in the corresponding regions which are highly divergent among genes from different genotypes and conserved within genes of VP4s in same genotypes were designed. Then four sets of primers for PCR amplified DIG labeled probes were designed and corresponding DIG-labeled specific P genotype probes were synthesized with PCR by using VP8* genes of Beijing field HRV strains representing P-genotypes P[8]a, P[8]b, P[4] and P[6], respectively, as templates. Dot-blot hybridization was developed based on cDNA of VP4 genes. The dot-blot hybridization assay for P genotyping was reliable which was confirmed by sequencing of RT-PCR products of VP4 genes amplified from corresponding clinical samples. P genotyping for VP4 genes from 88 HRV positive specimens from the Outpatient Department (55%, 88/160) and 79 HRV positive specimens from the hospitalized (70.5%, 79/112) children with diarrhea indicated that P[8] a subtype was still the most prevalent sub-genotype, which was 96.6% (85/88) and 62.0% (49/79) respectively. The positive rate for P[8]b subtypes in hospitalized children with HRV diarrhea was higher (27.9%, 22/79) than that of in outpatient (2.3%, 2/88) HRV infected children. HRV with P[4] genotype was only found in one of the hospitalized children (1.3%, 1/79), and HRV with P[6] genotype was not detected from specimens either from outpatient or inpatient. G9P[8]b was the predominant combination among the P[8]b subtype of HRV positive specimens in this study. The results in this study indicated that G9P[8]b HRV circulated in children with diarrhea in Beijing.

Analysis on VP7 and VP4 genes of human rotavirus G9 identified from children with diarrhea in Beijing, from 2007 to 2008 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To characterize the outer capsid protein VP7 and VP4 encoding genes of human rotavirus G9 strains detected in Beijing, from 2007 to 2008. Methods Full length of VP7 genes of G9 rotaviruses from 12 fecal specimens previously detected by dot-blot hybridization assay were amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced after being cloned into T vector. The sequences of these VP7s were compared to VP7 genes of rotaviras G9 prototype strains and recently circulating strains around the world. VP4 genes of these 12 G9 strains were amplified by nested-PCR for P genotyping. Results Sequence analysis for the full length of VP7 genes from these 12 specimens confirmed that they were G9 rotaviruses. P genotyping for VP4 genes revealed that both P[8]G9 and P [6] G9 were circulating in Beijing in the last 2 years. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that VP7 genes of G9 strains from Beijing in this study were clustered in the lineage Ⅲ which resembled the G9 strains circulating in other places around the world, indicated by high identities of nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences and were distant with the first reported G9 strain T203 identified in China in 1994. It was found that there were some consistent amino acid substitutes at the corresponding positions among VP7s from these 12 specimens and from Xinjiang and Wuhan, both in G9P [8] and G9P [6] strains. Conclusion The rotavirus G9 strains both in combination of G9P [8]and G9P [6] were circulating in Beijing in the past years. It seemed that rotavirus G9 should be included in the list of surveillance for rotavirus in China.

Human bocavirus infections are common in Beijing population indicated by sero-antibody prevalence analysis / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a newly identified human parvovirus that was originally detected in the respiratory secretions of children with respiratory infections. This study aimed to learn about the importance of HBoV infections by revealing the prevalence of serum antibodies against HBoV in Beijing population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two batches of serum specimens collected in different periods were tested by Western blotting for specific IgG against HBoV using recombinant VP2 as antigen.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Out of 677 serum specimens collected during April 1996 to March 1997, 400 (59.1%) were positive and antibody positive rate for another batch of 141 serum specimens collected in August, 2005 from adults aged from 20 years to over 60 years was 78.7% (111/141). Comparison of the sero-prevalence profiles for serum specimens collected during 1996 - 1997 to those collected in 2005 indicated that the antibody positive rate for specimens collected in 2005 was higher than that of the corresponding age groups collected during 1996 - 1997.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The data suggest that HBoV has been circulating in Beijing population for at least over 10 years, and most of children had been exposed to HBoV by age of 7 years. Higher HBoV antibody positive rate shown in the serum specimens collected in 2005 suggested that infections by HBoV have been increased in Beijing population in recent years.</p>

Seroprevalence of antibody against human bocavirus in Beijing, China / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To find out the importance of human bocavirus (HBoV) as an infectious agent for population in Beijing, China, seroprevalence study was conducted by using expressed recombinant major capsid VP2 protein as an antigen.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Serum specimens collected from infants and children who visited the Children's Hospital Affiliated to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics for health check up and adults visited the Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing for diseases other than respiratory infections from April 1996 to March 1997 were used for investigation. The major capsid protein VP2 from HBoV was expressed in E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector inserted with full-length VP2 gene of HBoV and the specific antigenicity of this expressed protein was validated by previous study. Western blot was used to detect specific IgG antibody against HBoV in collected serum specimens diluted to 1:200. Mock expressed protein was E. coli cells strain BL21 (DE3) with the transformed PET30b vector without insert. Anti-His monoclonal antibody and rabbit anti-HBoV VP2 polypeptides hyper-immune serum were used as positive control for antibody detection.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Out of 677 serum specimens tested, 400 (59.1%) were positive by Western blot. About 45.3% (34/75) of the newborns under 1 month of age had anti-HBoV antibodies, and antibody positive rates were lower in the age groups of 1 and 2 months (41.4% and 31.3%, respectively) and were higher in the following ages from 6 months to 7 years (from 45.6% to 69.7%). The antibody positive rates were at a relatively constant level (about 70%) in the age groups from 7 years to 40 years and became lower (61.8% - 62.8%) in groups of age over 50 years.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The high seroprevalence against recombinant HBoV VP2 protein and early age antibody acquisition indicate that HBoV has been circulating in Beijing, China as early as in 1996 and most of children had been exposed to HBoV by the age of 7 years. Infants under the age of 6 months were susceptible to infection with this virus.</p>