Partial Analysis of the Capsid Protein (VP1) of Human Sapovirus Isolated from Children with Diarrhoea in Rural Communities of South Africa

Mpho Magwalivha; Jean-Pierre Kabue Ngandu; Afsatou Ndama Traore; Natasha Potgieter

doi:10.1155/2022/9928378

Partial Analysis of the Capsid Protein (VP1) of Human Sapovirus Isolated from Children with Diarrhoea in Rural Communities of South Africa

Adv Virol. 2022 Jun 2:2022:9928378. doi: 10.1155/2022/9928378. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Mpho Magwalivha¹, Jean-Pierre Kabue Ngandu¹, Afsatou Ndama Traore¹, Natasha Potgieter¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science Engineering and Agriculture, University of Venda, Thohoyandou 0950, South Africa.

Abstract

Background: Viral diarrhoea is a concern in acute gastroenteritis cases among children younger than 5 years of age. Sapovirus has been noted as an emerging causative agent of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Objective/Study Design. The aim of this study was to characterize human sapoviruses targeting the VP1 (NVR and N-terminal) region. Twenty-five samples were randomly selected from 40 sapovirus-positive samples previously detected and analyzed for the VP1 region using the One-Step RT-PCR assay. The PCR products were subjected to Sanger sequencing analysis.

Results: The polyprotein segment (NVR and N-terminal) was successfully amplified from 10/25 samples. Sapovirus GI.1 was the most predominant strain (6/10; 60%), followed by SV-GII.1 (2/10; 20%) and 10% of each GI.3 and GII.3.

Conclusion: Through the partial analysis of the VP1 region, this study provides more data to add on the human sapovirus genetic characterization of circulating strains in South Africa, with the proposition of further analysis of sapovirus VP1 fragments for the viral structure and function.