Distribution of hepatitis C genotypes in Uttar Pradesh, India; rare genotype 4 detected.

Abstract

The worldwide prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is nearly 150 to 170 million cases. The prevalence of HCV infection in India is estimated to be around 1%. In India HCV genotype (GT)3 is the predominant GT followed by GT1. Our study aims to establish the prevalent GTs/subtypes of HCV circulating in Uttar Pradesh, North India, as reported from a tertiary care hospital. The study was a retrospective observational analysis of consecutive 404 HCV RNA positive cases referred to our hospital from September 2014 to April 2017, and was approved by an institutional ethics committee. Written informed consent was taken from each participant. Clinical and demographic details of these patients were recorded using predesigned questionnaires. All the laboratory testing was carried out on a stored serum sample of enrolled cases. Genotyping of all 404 strains was done by Sanger's sequencing of the core region. The phylogenetic analysis of 179 HCV strains with a high-quality sequencing data was performed. The distributions of prevalent GTs/subtypes as noted in the current study were ( n [%]):GT1a, 101 (25%); GT1b, 12 (2.9%); GT1c, 1 (0.25%); GT3a, 275 (68.07%); GT3b, 9 (2.2%); GT3g, 2 (0.49%); GT3i, 3 (0.74%); and GT4a, 1 (0.24%). HCV GTs GT2, GT5, and GT6 were not detected from our region. Sequence analysis showed high genotypic variability in HCV GT3. Phylogenetic analysis showed that HCV GT3 and GT1 circulating in our region were related to Indian strains reported earlier. HCV GTs 3a and 1a are the commonest circulating GTs in Uttar Pradesh, India.