The transmission route and selection pressure in HCV subtype 3a and 3b Chinese infections: evolutionary kinetics and selective force analysis

Xu, R., Rong, X., Aranday-Cortes, E., Vattipally, S. , Hughes, J. , McLauchlan, J. and Fu, Y. (2022) The transmission route and selection pressure in HCV subtype 3a and 3b Chinese infections: evolutionary kinetics and selective force analysis. Viruses, 14(7), 1514. (doi: 10.3390/v14071514) (PMID:35891494) (PMCID:PMC9324606)

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Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 3 (GT-3) represents 22–30% of all infections and is the second most common genotype among all HCV genotypes. It has two main subtypes, GT-3a and GT-3b, that present epidemiological differences in transmission groups. This report generated 56 GT-3a and 64 GT-3b whole-genome sequences to conduct an evolutionary kinetics and selective force analysis with reference sequences from various countries. Evolutionary analysis showed that HCV GT-3a worldwide might have been transmitted from the Indian subcontinent to South Asia, Europe, North America and then become endemic in China. In China, GT-3a may have been transmitted by intravenous drug users (IDUs) and become endemic in the general population, while GT-3b may have originated from IDUs and then underwent mutual transmission between blood donors (BDs) and IDUs, ultimately becoming independently endemic in IDUs. Furthermore, the spread of GT-3a and GT-3b sequences from BD and IDU populations exhibit different selective pressures: the proportion of positively selected sites (PPSs) in E1 and E2 from IDUs was higher than in BDs. The number of positive selection sites was higher in GT-3b and IDUs. These results indicate that different selective constraints act along with the GT-3a and GT-3b genomes from IDUs and BDs. In addition, GT-3a and GT-3b have different transmission routes in China, which allows us to formulate specific HCV prevention and control strategies in China.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Hughes, Dr Joseph and Vattipally, Dr Sreenu and McLauchlan, Professor John
Creator Roles:
Vattipally, S.Methodology, Software, Visualization
Hughes, J.Formal analysis, Methodology, Software
McLauchlan, J.Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review and editing
Authors: Xu, R., Rong, X., Aranday-Cortes, E., Vattipally, S., Hughes, J., McLauchlan, J., and Fu, Y.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research
Journal Name:Viruses
Publisher:MDPI
ISSN:1999-4915
ISSN (Online):1999-4915
Published Online:11 July 2022
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 The Authors
First Published:First published in Viruses 14(7): 1514
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
172630004The factors that drive HCV evolution and development of an antibody-focused prophylactic HCV vaccine (Programme 3)John McLauchlanMedical Research Council (MRC)MC_UU_12014/1III - Centre for Virus Research
172630014Cross-Cutting Programme – Viral Genomics and Bioinformatics (Programme 9)David RobertsonMedical Research Council (MRC)MC_UU_12014/12III - Centre for Virus Research