Molecular study of Hepatitis C virus infection and genotypes among seropositive renal dialysis in Diyala province\ Iraq

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major health problem among dialysis patients in
developing countries. Geographical distribution of various genotypes of HCV is useful for understanding the
epidemiological status, detection of mode and source of infection, designing the program of control, evaluating
the response to treatment and development of diagnostic methods and vaccine production.
Objectives: The present study aimed to detect the anti-HCV Ab and to investigate the HCV genotypes and
subtypes among renal dialysis patients.
Materials and Methods: The prevalence of anti-HCV antibody among 90 renal dialysis patients was
determined by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Then, HCV specific RNA was detected in those
anti-HCV seropositive renal dialysis patients, utilizing conventional PCR, Furthermore, Genotyping the HCVRNA positive samples was done. Simple statistical analysis was done using SPSS Version 25 and P value was
considered significant wherever it is below 0.05. PCR products were sent for Sanger sequencing using
ABI3730XL, automated DNA sequencer, by Macrogen Corporation – Korea. The results were received by
email then analyzed using geneious software.
Results: The overall prevalence of Hepatitis C antibody positive patients were 32.2%, while the PCR test results
were 17.8% in anti-HCV Ab positive. The 5¯ -UTR gene sequences were submitted to NCBI which gave the
published accession number on NCBI, it can be found on the website;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/LC546841.1/. In order to determine the genotypes of HCV, all of the
renal dialysis who was positive for the 5¯ -UTR gene had the genotype 1a.
Conclusions: The prevalence of HCV was high among renal dialysis in Diyala province/Iraq. HCV genotype 1a
was the prevalent in all patients. Further population-based study is required to determine the prevalence HCV
genotypes.