Genotyping hepatitis C virus isolates from Spain, Brazil, China, and Macau by a simplified PCR method.

An improved and simplified method of genotyping was developed for classifying hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates into the five common genotypes, i.e., I/1a, II/1b, III/2a, IV/2b, and V/3a, by PCR with genotype-specific primers deduced from the core gene. Sense and antisense primers, specific for each of the five common genotypes, were designed by comparison of 319 core gene sequences from HCV isolates of various genotypes from genetic groups 1 to 9. In the first round of PCR, a sequence of 433 bp representing nucleotides 319 to 751 was amplified with universal primers. The second round of PCR was performed with respective sense and antisense primers in two separate reactions, one for the amplification of genotypes I/1a and II/1b and the other for the amplification of genotypes III/2a, IV/2b, and V/3a. The specificity of genotyping was confirmed with a panel of 191 serum samples containing HCV isolates whose core gene sequences were known: 110 serum samples infected with HCV of the five common genotypes and 81 serum samples infected with HCV of other genotypes. The use of sense and antisense primers for genotype II/1b (primers 389 and 492) abolished the cross-reaction of the antisense primer for genotype II/1b (primer 133) with some HCV isolates of genotype I/1a found by our original method. The new method was used for genotyping 130 HCV isolates from Spain, 53 from Brazil, 106 from China, and 30 from Macau. A total of 329 bp of the NS5b region (nucleotides 8279 to 8607) of five isolates from Spain and five isolates from Macau which could not be classified as any of the five common HCV genotypes or genotype 2c were sequenced, and the sequences were compared with those of HCV isolates of known genotypes; two isolates from Spain were deduced to be of genotype 4d and one was deduced to be of genotype 1d, while the remaining two isolates from Spain had novel genotypes in genetic group 2; however, all five isolates from Macau were of genotype 6a.