Genotyping and Infection Rate of GBV-C among Iranian HCV-Infected Patients

Hepatitis g virus/gb virus-c (hgv/gbv-c) is a newly identified member of the flaviviridae family. its clinical significance in chronic hepatitis c infection remains controversial. there is a geographical difference in the distribution of gbv-c in the world. the frequency of gbv-c infection among hepatitis c virus (hcv) infected patients varies. the aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence and genotypes of gbv-c among iranian patients infected with chronic hcv.methods: infection with gbv-c was surveyed in 71 chronic confirmed hepatitis c infected patients. these samples were collected at the digestive disease research center (ddrc) of shariati hospital, tehran, iran from january to october 2007. the 5’-utr region of gbv-c rna was detected using a novel in-house touchdown nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr), the products were sequenced and the results were aligned and phylogenically analyzed.results: of the 71 hcv-infected patients, 31 (43.6%) were found positive for gbv-c rna. sequencing and phylogenic analysis showed that the samples were genotype 2 of gbv-c.conclusions: it seems that there is a high rate of gbv-c infection among iranian patients infected with chronic hcv. in comparison with the six reference genotypes, it was observed that all the samples were categorized in genotype 2 of gbv-c, prevalent in north america, africa and in european countries.