DETECTION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS IN SERA AND GENOTYPING ACCORDING TO THE 5'-NONCODING REGION

A reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method wa s used for detection of the RNA of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 120 samp les of sera from Crete, which were positive for HCV-specific antibodie s, by ELISA and Western blot analyses. A segment of 255 bp, located in the most conserved region of the HCV genome (the 5' untranslated regi on, 5' UTR), was amplified. For the identification of sequence variati on from the HCV-1 strain, twenty of these samples were sequenced and c ompared to prototype strain (HCV-1) according to current genotypic cla ssification. We were able to identify fourteen of the twenty as type 1 a (i.e. similar to the prototype), two as type 1b, two as type 3a and two as type 4a. These findings generally agree with the geographic dis tribution of the already identified genotypes, though 3a type has not been reported previously in Crete (Greece).