Genetic characterization of varicella zoster virus in Jilin province in 2017, China / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To clarify the genotype of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in Jilin province in 2017, and to discriminate between vaccine strain and wild-type strain.@*Methods@#Vesicle fluid and throat swab samples were collected from 10 individuals with suspected VZV in Jilin province from January to March of 2017. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used to detect viral nucleic acid. Specific regions of ORF22, ORF38 and ORF62 of VZV were amplified by PCR. Viral genotype was determined by five SNPs of ORF 22 and vaccine strain or wild-type strain was distinguished by four SNPs of ORF 38 and ORF 62. The results were analyzed with MEGA5 and BioEdit software, using the VZV reference strain sequences from GenBank.@*Results@#VZV-positive strains were detected in 10 samples, all belonged to Clade 2. There was a synonymous mutation (C→T) in position 38 048 of JL17-7 strain. The nucleotide homology of ORF22 showed that all 10 samples were on the same branch with the Clade 2 referenced strains. Compared with Clade 2 referenced strains, the homology of nucleotide and amino acid for all 10 samples were 99.5%-100% and 99.3%-100%, respectively. The four specific SNPs of ORF38 and ORF62 in 10 samples were A-T-T-T, which were consistent with wild-type strain.@*Conclusions@#This study reveals that the VZV strains circulating in Jilin province in 2017 were all wild-type strains belonging to Clade 2.