Prevalence and genetic diversity analysis of human coronavirus OC43 among adult patients with acute respiratory infections in Beijing, 2012.

ABSTRACT: To determine the prevalence, epidemiology and genetic diversity of human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) among adult patients with acute respiratory infections (ARI) in Beijing,five hundred and fifty-nine nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from adult patients with ARI in Beijing. The prevalence of HCoV-OC43 infection among these patients was assessed using two different OneStep reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. The epidemiological profiles of the patients with HCoV-OC43 infection were described. Partial S and N genes of HCoV-OC43 circulating strains were sequenced followed by phylogenetic analysis and amino acid alignment. Our results showed that the prevalence of HCoV-OC43 infection was 12.52% (95% CI: 9.78-15.26%), and the epidemic peak occurred in autumn. Fifty partial S and 40 partial N fragments were obtained from these patients. Phylogenetic analysis based on neighbour-joining method showed that at least three distinct clusters (A, B, C/D) of HCoV-OC43 strains were circulating among adult patients with ARI in Beijing. In addition, some novel unique clusters (UNT) of HCoV-OC43 were found in the S- and N-based phylogenetic trees. Furthermore, consensus amino acids substitutes for each cluster were also found after alignment of partial S or N sequence coding region in this study. In conclusion, we herein describe the prevalence of HCoV-OC43 among adult patients and provide substantial evidence for the genetic diversity of HCoV-OC43 circulating in Beijing.

SUBMITTER: Hu Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4079595 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature