RAPID DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN HANTAAN AND SEOUL VIRUSES BY POLYMERASECHAIN-REACTION AND RESTRICTION ENZYME ANALYSIS

The majority of causative strains of hemorrhagic fever with renal synd rome (HFRS) are known as Hantaan and Seoul viruses in Korea. The clini cal manifestations may be indistinguishable between both viruses, alth ough the clinical course of Hantaan virus infection is more severe tha n that of the Seoul virus. Therefore, the differentiation of Hantaan o r Seoul virus may be important for predicting the prognosis. The prime rs were selected from the published sequences of the S segments of Han taan virus strain 76-118 and Seoul virus strain SR-11, which made it p ossible to obtain the same size of 403 bp amplified product by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and nested PCR from both viral strains. The differentiation of the amplified products was carried out by restriction enzyme digestion. With HindIII, the 403 bp amplified product from Hantaan virus strain 76-118 was cleaved into tw o segments of 175 bp and 228 bp. By contrast, the 403 bp product from Seoul virus strain SR-11 was not cut by HindIII. With Hinfl, the 403 b p amplified product from Hantaan virus strain 76-118 was divided into two bands of 280 bp and 60 bp on the electrophoresis. In the case of t he digestion of 403 bp PCR product from Seoul virus strain SR-11 with Hinfl, more than four bands (155 bp, 115 bp, 60 bp, and 32/29 bp) were observed on the 2% agarose gel electrophoresis. This rapid technique may be useful for the differential diagnosis of Asian HFRS in Korea. ( C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.