Unusual rotavirus genotypes among children with acute diarrhea in Saudi Arabia.

Mahmoud Aly,Aisha Al Khairy,Hanan Balkhy,Sameera Al Johani

doi:10.1186/s12879-015-0923-y

Abstract

BackgroundHuman rotavirus A (human RV-A) is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in infants. The objective of the study was to characterize the G and P genotypes among clinical rotavirus isolates from children with acute diarrhea admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.MethodsFrom 2011 to 2012, 541 pediatric patients with acute diarrhea were tested for rotavirus infection. RNA extractions from the fecal specimens were done by commercial kit. RT-PCR and sequencing techniques were used to detect the prevalent genotypes. Phylogenetic analysis by Maximum Likelihood method was used to study the clustering of the circulating genotypes.ResultsThe data showed that 171/541 (31.6%) faecal samples were positive for human RVA and majority were children aged below 2 years. From the G and P [types] detected it was seen that (a) 171 minus 43 ie. 128 rotavirus positives were G typed successfully (b) 171 minus 20 ie. 151 rotavirus positives were P typed successfully; (c) overall G [P] nature was determined for 113 rotavirus positives out of 171. VP4 genotyping showed that majority of the positives 146/151 (96.7%) were P [8]; 4/151 (2.6%) were P [4]; 1/151 (0.66%) was P [6]. The dominant strains included G1P [8] 70/113 (61.9%); G9P [8] 19/113 (16.8%); G12P [8] 7/113 (6.2%) and G3P [8] 5/113 (4.4%) while the uncommon strains detected from Saudi Arabia during the study were G1P [4] 1/113 (0.88%) and G12P [6] 1/113 (0.88%). Phylogenetic tree, based on VP4/VP7 sequence analysis, revealed that G1P [8] was distinctly related to homologous strains included in human RV-A vaccine strains. Nevertheless, the uncommon genotypes G1P [4] and G12P [6] were clustered with isolates from other countries such as Bangladesh, China, Japan, Thailand and Philippines.ConclusionsMore studies will be required to further focus on newly emerging genotypes in our region together with the seasonality of rotavirus infection in the region, especially after January 2013 when the rotavirus vaccination has become part of routine childhood immunizations.

Highlights

IntroductionHuman rotavirus A (human RV-A) is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in infants
Human rotavirus A is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in infants
The main objectives of the study were (1) to determine the prevalence of rotavirus genotypes with a focus on VP4 and VP7 genotypic characterization; and (2) to perform the human RV-A molecular epidemiology study in Saudi Arabia aiming at the possible emergence of new genotypes in the region

Summary

Introduction

Human rotavirus A (human RV-A) is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in infants. The objective of the study was to characterize the G and P genotypes among clinical rotavirus isolates from children with acute diarrhea admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Human rotavirus A (human RV-A) is the most common pathogen causing viral gastroenteritis (VGE) [1]. Human RV-A infection causes 25-35% of all gastroenteritis hospitalized cases in children [2]. Infants and children are more vulnerable to human. The incidence of human RV-A disease in industrial and developing countries is more or less the same [1,7]; high mortality rates mainly occur in the developing countries, those with low revenues and poor health care systems [8]

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