Genetic diversity of echovirus 30 during a meningitis outbreak, demonstrated by direct molecular typing from cerebrospinal fluid

Abstract

Echovirus 30 is one of the enterovirus serotypes isolated most frequently in meningitis cases. The genetic diversity of echovirus 30 was investigated in patients hospitalised during an outbreak in 2000 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. A nested reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay was developed for qualitative analysis of the echovirus 30 VP1 encoding sequence directly from cerebrospinal fluid. The viral sequences obtained for 22 patients were compared with those of virus isolates obtained from nine patients with echovirus 30 meningitis admitted to hospital in 1996-1997 and with echovirus 30 sequences from international databases. In 2000, meningitis cases were caused by two virus variants (C3 and C4) distinct genetically from the other two variants (C1 and C2) identified during the period 1996-1997. A detailed phylogenetic analysis established that the C1, C2, and C3 variants had close relatives among viruses previously identified in other geographical areas. The C4 variant had not been described earlier. The genomic differences observed between the four echovirus 30 variants arose at synonymous sites indicating that the viruses shared similar antigenic sites in the VP1 encoding sequence. Overall, these observations suggest wide circulation of different echovirus 30 variants and periodic importation of new viruses. The apparent displacement observed between virus variants did not result from a selective advantage caused by antigenic variation.

Transmission Networks and Population Turnover of Echovirus 30

“…5) is consistent with previous VP1-based (3,4,8,27,37,49) and combined VP1/ RF-based (27,32,53) investigations of E30 population change within individual countries, such as Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In one of the earliest studies (37), successive emergence and extinction of VP1 groups 1 to 4 was observed between 1956 and 1998 although in all likelihood (based on the diversity within each group and the time spans involved) they must each have contained a number of separate RFs.…”

“…In the current study we have used the 3Dpol group as a marker to identify different circulating populations of E30 recombinant forms. The data we have obtained add to previous investigations of E30 population turnover and geographical distributions based on the identification of E30 subpopulations by phylogenetic groupings in VP1 (1,3,4,8,37,49,59). The use of RF-and VP1-based classifications of E30 for these epidemiological investigations has its own advantages and disadvantages.…”

“…E30 infections typically occur as a series of outbreaks every 3 to 5 years, frequently over large geographical areas. For example, high frequencies of E30 detection in meningitis cases and surveillance programs were reported for 2000 to 2001 throughout Europe, including Denmark (58), Belgium (57), Cyprus (45), Germany (46), and France (3,5) (10,37). The underlying basis for this periodicity in E30 infections and the possible association of different genetic variants of E30 with outbreaks are currently poorly understood.…”

An epidemiological study of enteric viruses in sewage with molecular characterization by RT-PCR and sequence analysis

“…Of note, the clinical virology laboratory of our main city hospital which monitors infections due to enteroviruses (Bailly et al 2002) reported that enterovirus isolations from clinical samples, especially Coxsackie virus, were remarkably rare during the study period. This suggests that enterovirus circulation was not active at the time.…”

Enterovirus meningitis in Brazil, 1998–2003

“…Outbreaks of viral meningitis due to Echovirus 30 have been reported in several countries, including Brazil [Joeia et al, 1999;Trallero et al, 2000;Baily et al, 2002;Thoelen et al, 2003;Bernit et al, 2004]. The identification of this enterovirus as etiological agent responsible for these outbreaks indicates an active worldwide circulation of this serotype in recent years [Diedrich and Schreier, 2001], Israel [Somekh et al, 2003] and Spain .…”