G. Fiordalisi et al., HIGH PREVALENCE OF GB VIRUS-C INFECTION IN A GROUP OF ITALIAN PATIENTS WITH HEPATITIS OF UNKNOWN ETIOLOGY, The Journal of infectious diseases, 174(1), 1996, pp. 181-183
Prevalence of the recently discovered GB virus C (GBV-C) was evaluated
in a cohort of 49 Italian patients with acute or chronic hepatitis of
unknown etiology (non-A-E hepatitis) and in a control group of 100 he
althy blood donors. The GBV-C genomes could be detected by polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) with reverse transcription in 35% of the acute an
d 39% of the chronic hepatitis patients; only 1 of the control subject
s had a positive response. All PCR products hybridized with a specific
probe in a colorimetric assay, and the analysis of the sequences of t
he amplified cDNAs fully confirmed the specificity of the assay. Furth
ermore, the alignment of the predicted translation products identified
two recurrent amino acid substitutions in 6 patients, suggesting the
possible existence of at least 2 different GBV-C subtypes. Thus, GBV-C
may be an important agent, contributing, at least in Italy, to a sign
ificant number of the cases of hepatitis of unknown etiology.