Evaluation and comparison of genotyping assays for molecular epidemiological study of HCV in Hong Kong

P.S. Cheng and W.C. Yam

The Hong Kong Society For Molecular Diagnostic Sciences, 4th Floor, Duke of Windsor Social Service Building, 15 Hennessy Road, Hong Kong.

Treatment regimen for hepatitis C virus infection is viral genotype dependent. Serum samples were used to evaluate and compare a commercial and a newly developed in-house HCV genotyping protocol. The sequencing data obtained from in-house genotyping method were subjected to epidemiology analysis of major HCV genotypes prevalent in Hong Kong. A total of 337 serum samples were included in this study. Among these 337 samples, 85 samples were tested by both assays, and the other 252 were tested only by the in-house developed method. HCV viral load detection was performed on all samples. Molecular epidemiology was further elucidated on HCV subtypes 1b and 6a which are highly prevalent in Hong Kong. Results showed an overall concordance rate of 89.4% between the assays. The commercial HCV genotyping test is capable to detect mixed genotypes in the same sample while the in-house developed method can be operated in a lower running cost. The local HCV subtypes 1b and 6a showed a low genetic divergence to that of other geographic areas. Our findings highlight the potential application of in-house HCV genotyping protocol which is suitable for routine laboratory diagnosis at a lower running cost.

Keywords: Genotyping, linear array, sequencing, epidemiology analysis.

View Full Text