RESUMO
Ecuador is a tropical country reporting Dengue virus (DENV) outbreaks with areas of hyperendemic viral transmission. Entomo-virological surveillance and monitoring effort conducted in the Northwestern border province of Esmeraldas in April 2022, five pools of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from a rural community tested positive for DENV serotype 2 by RT-qPCR. One pool was sequenced by Illumina MiSeq, and it corresponded to genotype III Southern Asian-American. Comparison with other genomes revealed genetic similarity to a human DENV genome sequenced in 2021, also from Esmeraldas. Potential introduction events to the country could have originated from Colombia, considering the vicinity of the collection sites to the neighboring country and high human movement. The inclusion of genomic information complements entomo-virological surveillance, providing valuable insights into genetic variants. This contribution enhances our understanding of Dengue virus (DENV) epidemiology in rural areas and guides evidence-based decisions for surveillance and interventions.
RESUMO
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer (CC). Ecuador has a high prevalence of cervical cancer, with more than 1600 new cases diagnosed annually. This study aimed to analyze oncogenes E6 and E7 of HPV16 in samples collected from women with cancerous and precancerous cervical lesions from the Ecuadorian coast. Twenty-nine women, including six with ASCUS, three with LSIL, thirteen with HSIL, and seven with Cacu, were analyzed. The most common SNPs were E6 350G or L83V (82.6%) and E6 145T/286A/289G/335T/350G or Q14H/F78Y/L83V (17.4%). Both variants are reported to be associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer in worldwide studies. In contrast, all E7 genes have conserved amino-acid positions. Phylogenetic trees showed the circulation of the D (26.1%) and A (73.9) lineages. The frequency of D was higher than that reported in other comparable studies in Ecuador and Latin America, and may be related to the ethnic composition of the studied populations. This study contributes to the characterization of the potential risk factors for cervical carcinogenesis associated with Ecuadorian women infected with HPV16.
Assuntos
Proteínas Oncogênicas Virais , Infecções por Papillomavirus , Neoplasias do Colo do Útero , Humanos , Feminino , Neoplasias do Colo do Útero/epidemiologia , Proteínas Oncogênicas Virais/genética , Proteínas E7 de Papillomavirus/genética , Equador/epidemiologia , Papillomavirus Humano , Papillomavirus Humano 16/genética , FilogeniaRESUMO
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is the latest pandemic lineage causing COVID-19. Despite having a vaccination rate ≥85%, Ecuador recorded a high incidence of Omicron from December 2021 to March 2022. Since Omicron emerged, it has evolved into multiple sub-lineages with distinct prevalence in different regions. In this work, we use all Omicron sequences from Ecuador available at GISAID until March 2022 and the software Nextclade and Pangolin to identify which lineages circulate in this country. We detected 12 different sub-lineages (BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.1.1.1, BA.1.1.14, BA.1.1.2, BA.1.14, BA.1.15, BA.1.16, BA.1.17, BA.1.6, BA.2, BA.2.3), which have been reported in Africa, America, Europe, and Asia, suggesting multiple introduction events. Sub-lineages BA.1 and BA.1.1 were the most prevalent. Genomic surveillance must continue to evaluate the dynamics of current sub-lineages, the early introduction of new ones and vaccine efficacy against evolving SARS-CoV-2.
