Analysis of genetic variations of hepatitis C virus 5′untranslated regions gene in human immunodeficiency ;virus-1/hepatitis C virus co-infected patients in Xinj iang / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the genetic dynamics of hepatitis C virus (HCV)5′untranslated regions (UTR)gene in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)/HCV co-infected patients in Xinjiang.Methods Anti-HCV was tested using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in 212 HIV-1 infected patients in Xinjiang. RNA was extracted from HIV-1/HCV co-infected samples.Then HCV 5′UTR gene was amplified after reverse transcription using PrimeScriptTMⅡ 1st Strand cDNA Synthesis kit.The sequences were then compared with HCV international standard strains to determine the HCV gene types.The gene distance of 4 sampling virus strains was calculated and the phylogenetic analysis was performed to establish the cladogram.Results One hundred and fifty-seven among the 212 HIV-infected patients were HCV antibody positive.Of them,2 patients were infected through heterosexual transmission and the remaining 155 patients were injection drug users (IDU). HCV 5′UTR was amlipicated and geno-typed successfully in 131 samples.Five HCV genotypes were identified, including 3a (40/131,30.53%),3b (23/131,17.56%),1a (11/131,8.40%),1b (56/131,42.75%),and 6a (1/131,0.76%).The general homology was 87.5%-99.3% in 38 patients,and there were differences in homology in different subtypes.The homology of the 4 sampling sequences from the same sample was 99.3%-100.0%,with the variation of 0 -0.7%.The intragroup gene deviation and deviation with the first sample tended to increase with time.The mean evolutionary rate of HCV 5′UTR in HIV-1 infected patients in Xinjiang was 1.62 × 10 -3 (95%CI1.52 × 10 -3 -5.38 × 10 -3 ).The similarity and homology of several sequences obtained from the one participant were the highest.Conclusions The prevalence of HCV co-infection among HIV-1 infected patients in Xinjiang is high,especially among IDU.Subtype 1b of HCV is prevalent strain.