Abstract
BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the most prevalent viral infections in humans and represents a serious public health problem. In Colombia, our group reported recently the presence of subgenotypes F3, A2 and genotype G in Bogotá. The aim of this study was to characterize the HBV genotypes circulating in Quibdó, the largest Afro-descendant community in Colombia. Sixty HBsAg-positive samples were studied. A fragment of 1306 bp (S/POL) was amplified by nested PCR. Positive samples to S/POL fragment were submitted to PCR amplification of the HBV complete genome.FindingsThe distribution of HBV genotypes was: A1 (52.17%), E (39.13%), D3 (4.3%) and F3/A1 (4.3%). An HBV recombinant strain subgenotype F3/A1 was found for the first time.ConclusionsThis study is the first analysis of complete HBV genome sequences from Afro-Colombian population. It was found an important presence of HBV/A1 and HBV/E genotypes. A new recombinant strain of HBV genotype F3/A1 was reported in this population. This fact may be correlated with the introduction of these genotypes in the times of slavery.
Highlights
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a relevant global health problem with 2 billion people that have been infected worldwide, including 350 million of them suffering from chronic HBV infection [1]
A new recombinant strain of HBV genotype F3/A1 was reported in this population
Of the 60 HbsAg-positive samples, 29 (48.3%) were positive by nested PCR for S/POL region and among them, 23 were obtained with good quality sequenced for phylogenetic analysis (Figure 1)
Summary
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a relevant global health problem with 2 billion people that have been infected worldwide, including 350 million of them suffering from chronic HBV infection [1]. A genetic classification based on the comparison of complete HBV genomes has identified nine genotypes, A through I [8], that differ by at least 8% at nucleotide level from each other. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genomes of subgenotype A1 isolates classified it in two clusters (African and Asian) [10]. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the most prevalent viral infections in humans and represents a serious public health problem. The aim of this study was to characterize the HBV genotypes circulating in Quibdó, the largest Afro-descendant community in Colombia. Positive samples to S/POL fragment were submitted to PCR amplification of the HBV complete genome
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