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Hepatitis G virus infection in patients with chronic non-A-E hepatitis.

AIM
To elucidate the role of hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection in chronic non-A-E hepatitis and sequence the partial NS5 genome of HGV isolated from the serum of a Chinese patient with chronic non-A-E hepatitis


METHODS
Serum samples of patients with chronic non-A-E hepatitis were collected and total nucleic acids were extracted and subjected to reverse transcriptase-nested-polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested-PCR) using primers from the putative NS5 region of HGV genome. Then, 994bp cDNA was prepared from the positive serum, purified with electrophoresis of polyacrylamide gels, and directly sequenced using the dideoxy-mediated chain-termination method.


RESULTS
HGV-RNA was detected in 1 of the 35 patients with chronic non-A-E hepatitis. Compared with the 2 HGV isolates (PNF2161 and R10291) obtained from American patients, the HGV NS5 gene of this Beijing isolate (HG-G) showed homology of 88.0% and 89.2% respectively. On the other hand, in comparison with the West African isolate (GBV-C), the Beijing isolate showed homology of 93.5%. The patient showed persistent increase of alanine transaminase, but normal levels were achieved after interferon therapy with persistent positive HGV RNA.


CONCLUSION
HGV is one of the causes of chronic non-A-E hepatitis, but it may not be a very important cause. The nucleotide sequence of partial NS5 gene of HG-G was found to be highly homologous to the West Africa isolate.