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. 2015 Aug 14;10(8):e0135687.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135687. eCollection 2015.

Surveillance of Human Astrovirus Infection in Brazil: The First Report of MLB1 Astrovirus

Maria da Penha Trindade Pinheiro Xavier  1 , Filipe Aníbal Carvalho Costa  1 , Mônica Simões Rocha  1 , Juliana da Silva Ribeiro de Andrade  1 , Fernanda Kreischer Bandeira Diniz  1 , Thais Ramos de Andrade  1 , Marize Pereira Miagostovich  1 , José Paulo Gagliardi Leite  1 , Eduardo de Mello Volotão  1
Affiliations

Surveillance of Human Astrovirus Infection in Brazil: The First Report of MLB1 Astrovirus

Maria da Penha Trindade Pinheiro Xavier et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Human astrovirus (HAstV) represents the third most common virus associated with acute diarrhea (AD). This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of HAstV infection in Brazilian children under 5 years of age with AD, investigate the presence of recently described HAstV strains, through extensive laboratory-based surveillance of enteric viral agents in three Brazilian coastal regions between 2005 and 2011. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the overall HAstV detection rate reached 7.1% (207/2.913) with percentage varying according to the geographic region: 3.9% (36/921) in the northeast, 7.9% in the south (71/903) and 9.2% in the southeast (100/1.089) (p < 0.001). HAstV were detected in cases of all age groups. Detection rates were slightly higher during the spring. Nucleotide sequence analysis of a 320-bp ORF2 fragment revealed that HAstV-1 was the predominant genotype throughout the seven years of the study. The novel AstV-MLB1 was detected in two children with AD from a subset of 200 samples tested, demonstrating the circulation of this virus both the in northeastern and southeastern regions of Brazil. These results provide additional epidemiological and molecular data on HAstV circulation in three Brazilian coastal regions, highlighting its potential to cause infantile AD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Seasonality of HAstV in cases of acute diarrhea.
Laboratory-based HAstV in three Brazilian regions, between 2005 and 2011. The rate of HAstV detection by month and number of HAstV-positive samples. Each month represents cumulative observations.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Map of the Brazilian coastal regions, showing the HAstV genotype distributions during 2005–2011.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Phylogenetic analyses based on the nucleotide sequences (ORF2 region) of classic HAstV.
(A) Phylogenetic analyzes were based on the 320-bp capsid gene between HAstV-1 strains detected in this study and HAstV-1 worldwide strains. (B) Phylogenetic analyzes between strains HAstV-2-HAstV-8 detected in this study and HAstV worldwide strains. The Brazilian strains described in this study are denoted by black circles. The scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. Bootstrap values (2.000 pseudo-replicates) above 70 are shown. The HAstV reference strains included in this analysis were obtained from GenBank.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Phylogenetic analyses based on the nucleotide sequences (ORF2 region) of MLB1 Brazilian isolates and representative Mamastrovirus species worldwide.
The Brazilian strains described in this study are denoted by black circles. The scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. Bootstrap values (2.000 pseudo-replicates) above 70 are shown. Reference sequences accession number in GenBank Database are cited in order of appearance: NC_011400; FJ402983; NC_014320; JN871245; KC294576; KC294577; HQ674649; HQ674647; HQ674648; HQ6746450; JQ086552; NC_016155; GQ502193; NC_002469; NC_001943; L13745; GU732187; DQ070852; DQ028633; GQ901902; AF260508; HM450382; to Turkey AstV (NC_002470).
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Grants and funding

The authors thank the Excellence Program of Research (PROEP-CNPq/IOC) and the General Coordination of Laboratories/Secretary of Health Surveillance, Ministry of Health for financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.