A novel candidate hepatitis C virus genotype 4 subtype identified by next generation sequencing full-genome characterization in a patient from Saudi Arabia

Mariantonietta Di Stefano; Mona H Ismail; Thomas Leitner; Giuseppina Faleo; Marwan Jabr Alwazzeh; Jean Lutamyo Mbisa; Josè Ramon Fiore; Teresa Antonia Santantonio

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285367

A novel candidate hepatitis C virus genotype 4 subtype identified by next generation sequencing full-genome characterization in a patient from Saudi Arabia

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 2:14:1285367. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285367. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
² Division of Gastroenterology, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
³ College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States.
⁵ Infectious Disease Division, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Antiviral Unit, Blood Safety, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and HIV (BSHSH) Service, UK Health Security Agency, London, United Kingdom.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background and aim: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major global public health concern, being a leading cause of chronic liver diseases such as chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The virus is classified into 8 genotypes and 93 subtypes, each displaying distinct geographic distributions. Genotype 4 is the most predominant in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean and is associated with high rates of hepatitis C infection worldwide. This study used next-generation sequencing to fully characterize the HCV genome and identify a novel subtype within genotype 4 isolated from a 64-year-old Saudi man diagnosed with hepatitis C.

Methods: We analyzed the complete genome of the 141-HCV isolate using whole-genome sequencing.

Results: Our phylogenetic reconstructions, based on the entire genome of HCV-4 strains, revealed that the 141-HCV isolate formed a distinct group within the genotype 4 classification, providing valuable new insights into the variability of HCV.

Conclusion: This discovery of a previously unclassified HCV subtype within genotype 4 sheds light on the ongoing evolution and diversity of the virus. Such knowledge has significant implications for diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, as different subtypes may exhibit varying drug sensitivities and resistance profiles.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus (HCV); Saudi Arabia; genotypes; next generation sequence; subtypes.

Grants and funding

R01 AI087520/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States