Genetic analysis of varicella-zoster virus in patients with viral anterior uveitis

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the intraocular varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection and genetic characteristics in patients clinically diagnosed with viral anterior uveitis. Methods: A total of 83 aqueous humor samples were collected from patients clinically diagnosed with viral anterior uveitis infection in China from June 2018 to July 2019. The positive samples infected with VZV were screened by real time polymerase chain reaction, and the single nucleotide polymorphisms on the open reading frames 22, 38 and 62 of the positive samples were amplified and analyzed. According to the gene characteristics of the amplified target fragment, the vaccine strain and wild strain (8 vaccine strains and the rest were wild strains) were identified to determine the genotype. Results: There were 83 patients (31 females and 52 males) with viral uveitis infection, whose mean age was 51.0 (45.5, 61.0) (range: 15-83) years,, and, of which 57.8% (48 cases) were infected with viral uveitis over 50 years of age. None of the patients had a history of varicella or herpes zoster vaccination. Of the samples of 83 patients infected with viral uveitis, 57 (68.6%) were positive for VZV. Among them, 14 were successfully amplified to obtain the target fragment gene sequences, all of which were wild strains by analysis, and belonged to Clade2 of genotype, which was the same as the VZV vaccine strain types infected by varicella and herpes zoster patients in China. Conclusion: From 2018 to 2019, VZV infection in Chinese patients with viral anterior uveitis was a wild strain, and the genotype belonged to Clade2 as the vaccine strain, which was the same as the main epidemic genotype of VZV infection in Chinese patients with varicella and herpes zoster.