Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: Molecular characterization of hepatitis A virus isolates from environmental and clinical samples in Greece | Kokkinos et al. Virology Journal 2010 7 235 http content 7 1 235 VIROLOGY JOURNAL SHORT REPORT Open Access Molecular characterization of hepatitis A virus isolates from environmental and clinical samples in Greece Petros Kokkinos Panos Ziros Sevasti Filippidou loannis Mpampounakis Apostolos Vantarakis Abstract Background Hepatitis A virus HAV strains detected in environmental and clinical samples were analysed to characterize the genotypes of HAV circulating in Greece. Fifty 50 sewage samples were collected from Patras South-Western Greece and Alexandroupolis North-Eastern Greece from 2007 until 2009 accordingly. The clinical samples derived from an HAV outbreak involved populations from three neighbouring prefectures of North-Eastern Greece Xanthi Rodopi and Evros . HAV particles were detected by nested RT-PCR using a previously validated set of primers to amplify a 290-bp fragment encompassing the 5 -NTR. Positive HAV samples were confirmed by sequencing of the PCR product. To determine the relatedness between the different isolated sequences a phylogenetic tree was constructed. Results Results showed a 100 prevalence of genotype I and particularly subgenotype IA. The analyzed HAV strains were closely related between them with the percentage of nucleotide identity ranging between 96 and 100 . Conclusions The study revealed the major prevalence of circulating strains of IA genotype in Greece and underlined the usefulness of molecular methods for the detection and typing of viruses in both environmental and clinical samples. The present study is to our knowledge the first in Greece to depict the simultaneous molecular characterization of HAV strains isolated from both clinical and environmental samples. Background The Hepatitis A virus HAV is responsible for around half the cases of hepatitis diagnosed worldwide and is recognized currently as one of the most important human food-borne pathogens as it is the cause of most outbreaks reported in the
