Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Hepatitis C virus genotype 3a with phylogenetically distinct origin is circulating in Pakistan | Rehman et al. Genetic Vaccines and Therapy 2011 9 2 http content 9 1 2 z GENETIC VACCINES AND THERAPY SHORT REPORT Open Access Hepatitis C virus genotype 3a with phylogenetically distinct origin is circulating in Pakistan Irshad-ur Rehman Muhammad Idrees Muhammad Ali Liaqat Ali Sadia Butt Abrar Hussain Haji Akbar Samia Afzal Abstract Background Hepatitis C virus HCV is one of the leading causes of viral hepatitis worldwide and its genotype 3a is predominant in vast areas of Pakistan. Findings The present study reports the first full sequence of HCV 3a isolate PK-1 from Pakistan. This nucleotide sequence was compared with six other HCV genotype 3a full length sequences from different regions of the world by using statistical methods of phylogenetic analysis. Conclusion The nucleotide difference of these seven sequences shows that HCV genotype 3a of phylogenetically distinct origin is circulating in Pakistan. Findings Hepatitis C virus HCV is leading cause of chronic liver disease 1 with estimated 170-200 million infected persons worldwide 2 including approximately 17 million in Pakistan 3 . It is positive single stranded RNA virus first isolated in 1819 and is a member of Flaviviridae 2 4 . The HCV genome is about kb in length consisting of single open reading frame encoding a polyprotein of 3 000 amino acids and non-translated regions located at the 5 and 3 terminus 5 . The relative prevalence of HCV genotypes varies with the geographic area but genotypes 1 2 and 3 have worldwide distribution. 1a and 1b are the most widespread genotypes in the Europe 6 USA 7 and Japan 8 . HCV subtype 3a is the most common genotype circulating in India 9 Nepal 10 and Pakistan 11 . HCV genotype 4 prevailing in the Middle East and North Africa 12 and genotypes 5 and 6 appears to be most common to South Africa and Hong Kong respectively 13 . Genetic analysis of HCV genotype 3a is very important as it is very sensitive to interferon therapy compared to the other
