Second Human Pegivirus in Hepatitis C Virus-Infected and Hepatitis C Virus/HIV-1-Co-infected Persons Who Inject Drugs, China

Abstract

We report the presence of the second human pegivirus (HPgV-2) in Guangdong and Sichuan Provinces in China. The prevalence of HPgV-2 in hepatitis C virus/HIV-1-co-infected persons who inject drugs was 12.9% in Guangdong and 15.9% in Sichuan. This population is at high risk for HPgV-2 infection.

Keywords: China; HCV; HHpgV-1; HIV-1; HPgV; HPgV-2; MSM; PWID; hepatitis C virus; men who have sex with men; pegivirus; persons who inject drugs; second human pegivirus; viruses.

Figure 1

Detection of second human pegivirus (HPgV-2) antibodies in different samples in Guangdong and Sichuan Provinces, China. Serum or plasma samples from 86 HCV-infected patients, 70 PWID, 122 MSM, and 102 blood donors (100 samples that were negative for HPgV-2 antibodies plus 2 positive samples) are included. The antibody titers from each sample are plotted on the y-axis. HPgV-2 RNA–positive samples are shown in red. HCV, hepatitis C virus; MSM, men who have sex with men; OD₄₅₀, optical density at 450 nm; PWID, persons who inject drugs.

Figure 2

Phylogenetic analysis of second human pegivirus (HPgV-2) isolates identified in our study (China) and abroad (UK and US). Phylogenetic trees of nucleotide sequences from complete sequences of HPgV-2 strains isolated in our study and elsewhere as well as hepatitis C virus and pegivirus strains from humans, simians, equids, bats, and rodents are included. The phylogenetic trees were constructed with the neighbor-joining tree method using MEGA6 software (http://www.megasoftware.net). Bootstrap analysis with 1,000 replicates was performed to determine the robustness of branching; values are shown on branches. Scale bar indicates the estimated number of nucleotide substitutions per site. The near full-length genome sequences of HPgV-2 identified in this study have been submitted to GenBank under accession numbers KX528230 (HCV-121), KX528231 (IDU31), KY971606 (C346), MG457178 (SC-LS-01), MF770985 (HCV1241), and MF770986 (HCV1563). UK, United Kingdom; US, United States.