Genetic diversity and worldwide distribution of the deltavirus genus: A study of 2,152 clinical strains

Abstract

This study provides insight into the genetic diversity of HDV and a clear view of its geographical localization and allows speculation as to the worldwide spread of the virus, very likely from an initial African origin. (Hepatology 2017;66:1826-1841).

High prevalence and diversity of hepatitis B and hepatitis delta virus in Gabon

“…For HDV, the R0 region was successfully amplified from 42 (50%) of the 84 anti‐HDV antibody‐positive samples (European Nucleotide Archive accession numbers LS482925 ‐ LS482966). Although subgenotypes were established from full HDV genomes, the global topology of our phylogenetic tree (established with shorter sequences) showed distinct genotypes and subgenotypes, suggesting that the difference in methods did not affect the interpretation of our results. As shown in Figures and , three HDV genotypes were found to be circulating in Gabon: genotype HDV‐1 (n = 23, 21 HDV subgenotype 1a and 2 subgenotype 1b), HDV‐7 (n = 7, 5 HDV subgenotype 7a and 2 subgenotype 7b), and HDV‐8 (n = 12, all subgenotype 8a).…”

“…HDV genotypes were determined by phylogenetic analysis of the R0 region (400 bp) of the genome as described previously . The ultra sensitive RT‐PCR amplification of this region covering the 19 specific amino acids of the large delta protein discriminates between all eight known HDV genotypes . Raw HDV and HBV sequences were edited and manually corrected using Genious R7.…”

“…Hepatitis D virus is classified into eight major genotypes, named HDV‐1 to HDV‐8 . HDV genotypes and subgenotypes also have distinct geographic distributions.…”

“…HDV genotypes and subgenotypes also have distinct geographic distributions. HDV‐1 strains are the most prevalent worldwide, HDV‐2 and ‐4 strains are restricted to Asia, HDV‐3 appears to be restricted to the northern part of South America, and genotypes HDV‐5 to HDV‐8 are found only in Africa . Few genotyping studies have been performed in central Africa, and often only in small populations.…”

Prevalence and burden of hepatitis D virus infection in the global population: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The geographical distributions of HDV genotype 3, genotype 4 and genotype 8 are still the same (figure 5 and online supplementary appendix table S5). 20 HDV genotypes 5–7 have only been reported from Africa. However, in the last 5 years, genotypes 5 and 6 have also been found in the UK,21 genotypes 6 and 7 in France22 and genotype 5 in Switzerland 23…”