Molecular Epidemiology of HCV RNA Genotype-3 in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Md Arifur Rahman; Md Monirul Islam; Md Eunus Ali; Mohammad Ariful Islam; Farhana Afroze; Mohammad Shamim Hossain; Ahmed Abu Rus'd

doi:10.1055/s-0043-1771182

Molecular Epidemiology of HCV RNA Genotype-3 in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Glob Med Genet. 2023 Aug 7;10(3):199-204. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-1771182. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Md Arifur Rahman^{1

2

3}, Md Monirul Islam^{4

3}, Md Eunus Ali^{2

5}, Mohammad Ariful Islam¹, Farhana Afroze¹, Mohammad Shamim Hossain^{6

3}, Ahmed Abu Rus'd¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² PCRLaboratory, Ibn Sina Diagnostics and Imaging Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ Division of Molecular Diagnosis and Clinical Genetics, BioIcon Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ PCR & Molecular Diagnosis Section, Labaid Limited (Diagnostics), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, BSMMU, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁶ Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a causative agent that causes chronic liver diseases worldwide. It is a little, enclosed, single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus. The recognition of the pathogenic HCV genotype is critical for the remedy of its sufferers. The aim of this study was to identify the HCV RNA genotype to decide the correct treatment of hepatitis C positive sufferers in Bangladesh. Blood samples were collected from 390 individuals and isolated RNA (60 µg) from blood plasma. Extracted RNA was used for quantitative HCV RNA, and complementary DNA (cDNA) was prepared by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conducted by reverse transcriptase enzyme. This cDNA amplified in multiplex by RT-PCR, which was performed with specific set of primers. The HCV RNA genotype was detected 297 of 390 patients. Of the 390 test samples, 200 (51.28%) samples were from males and 190 (48.71%) were from females, with age ranging from 5 to 78 years. In all, 166 of 200 male samples and 131/190 female samples were found positive for HCV. Of these 390 participants included in the study, 213 (54.61%) were identified as genotype 3 positive, 78 (20%) as genotype 1 positive, 6 (1.53%) as genotype 6 positive, and the remaining 93 (23.85%) samples were unclassified due to low/undetected viral load. In this study, we detected the highest percentage (30.89%) of genotype 3 HCV in patients aged 51 to 60 years. The results suggested that genotype 3 HCV is frequently present in Bangladesh and it is usually responses better to interferon therapy. However, genotype 1 and 6 HCV have also been found circulating in this country, which demands longer treatments and effective control measures.

Keywords: antiviral therapies; cDNA; cirrhosis; genotypes; hepatocellular carcinoma; reverse transcription; viral load.

The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

Grants and funding

Funding None.