Detection and phylogenetic analysis of human pegivirus (GBV-C) among blood donors and patients infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) in Qatar

Abstract

Human Pegivirus (HPgV), formerly GB virus-C/Hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), collectively known as GBV-C, is widely spread and has been reported to be associated with non-A-E hepatitis. To our knowledge, no previous study was conducted about HPgV in Qatar. Thus, the objectives of this study were as follows: (i) to determine the rates of HPgV infection in Qatar among healthy blood donors and HBV-infected patients, and (ii) to determine the most predominant HPgV genotype in Qatar. A total of 714 blood plasma samples from healthy donors (612) and HBV-infected patients (102) were collected. RNA was extracted, reversed transcribed, and then subjected for HPgV detection by two round-nested PCR using primers amplifying a 208 bp of 5'-UTR of the HPgV. For genotyping, the 5'-UTR PCR products (from 25 randomly picked samples) were cloned and sequenced. The overall infection rate of HPgV in Qatar was 13.3%. There was no significant difference (P = 0.41) in the infection rates between healthy donor (13.7%) and in HBV-infected patients (10.7%). Moreover, we did not find any significant association between HPgV infection rates and nationality, sex, or age (P > 0.05). Sequence analysis of 40 5'-UTR PCR amplicons yielded the European genotype 2 as most predominant in Qatar, although other genotypes (5 and 7) were also present. Our results indicate that there is no strong correlation between HPgV infection rate, condition, nationality, age, and sex, and genotype 2 is most predominant in Qatar.

Comparative Serological Study for the Prevalence of Anti-MERS Coronavirus Antibodies in High- and Low-Risk Groups in Qatar

“…In total, 4858 plasma samples were analyzed in this study. Samples were distributed as follows: 4719 plasma samples were collected from BD during previous studies [16][17][18][19][20] over a period of five years (2012-2016; age: 19-88 years; mean age 37 years), 135 plasma samples were collected from individuals that were in CC to four CP (age: 14-49 years; mean age 31 years), and four plasma samples were collected from CP (age: 30-70 years; mean age 52). The CC individuals represented the patient's family members, healthcare workers, and camel farm coworkers.…”

Global prevalence of human pegivirus‐1 in healthy volunteer blood donors: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…In 6 studies , the samples did not include blood donors, 2 studies were carried out on commercial blood donors, and the remaining 3 did not use molecular tests for detecting HPgV‐1. We ended up including 79 studies in the systematic review . The Supplementary content table presents the characteristics of included studies.…”

“…The prevalence rates were reported from a wide range of countries spanning all continents. Five studies reported data from North America, 11 from South America, 21 from Europe, 33 from Asia, 5 from Africa, 2 from Australia, and 1 from both North America and Europe (we did not pool this study for results based on continent of origin). Demographic data were not consistently reported across studies, and we were not able to perform subgroup analyses based on age or gender.…”

“…All studies reported the use of RT‐PCR for detection of HPgV‐1 RNA. While the majority of the articles reported the volunteers to be serologically negative for HBV/HCV, 8 studies did not specify the absence of HBV/HCV antigens in their sample. Also, 7 studies had a minor number of donors who were seropositive for HBV/HCV, and one study had some donors with raised ALT (alanine aminotransferase) levels , but we could no separate their data from the overall results published in the study.…”

“…Also, 7 studies had a minor number of donors who were seropositive for HBV/HCV, and one study had some donors with raised ALT (alanine aminotransferase) levels , but we could no separate their data from the overall results published in the study. Therefore, we decided to exclude these 16 articles from the meta‐analysis leaving us with a total of 63 studies for the quantitative research. It is noteworthy that the 16 excluded articles included the 11 high risk of bias studies found in our methodological review.…”