Acute gastroenteritis (AG) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality of children worldwide, being rotavirus one of the causative agents of AG, responsible for about 38.3% of the cases of hospitalization, resulting in 197,000 deaths of children under five years annually, mostly in developing countries. Rotavirus belongs to the family Reoviridae, genera Rotavirus, have genome composed by 11 segments of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and are classified into eight groups/different species (A to H).The most commonly found belongs to the group/species A (RVA), however rotavirus group/species C (RVC) has assumed importance in gastroenteritis and usually relate to self-limiting course of childhood diarrhea, with possible transmission from pigs. This study aims to detect the RVC in children less than three years of age hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis in Belém city, Pará state, Amazon region, Brazil. From May 2008 to April 2011, an intensive surveillance for AG was performed in a pediatric hospital of Belém in children with AG, of which 279 samples had negative results for RVA and norovirus. Accordingly, the nucleic acid was extracted from the fecal suspension with silica by the method of reverse transcribed and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primer pairs specific for the VP7 gene G8S/G8A; C1/C4 for VP6; T434/T435 for VP4; and NSP4 (+)/(-) specific for NSP4 gene. The positive control (prototype Cowden) and negative control (water RNAse free) were used in all tests. Automatic sequencing and subsequent phylogenetic analysis were performed. Data were analyzed using statistical chi-square partition, Fisher's exact test and simple logistic regression with p values ≤ 0.05. The positive rate for RVC was 2.1% (6/279) by PAGE and RT-PCR and posteriorly, submitted to automated sequencing and classified in genotypes I2, G4, P[2] and E2 for VP6, VP7, VP4 and NSP4 genes, respectively. The frequency of RVC was higher in the age group between 24 to 36 months (5.7%) (p= 0.0493). Gender more affected by RVC was the male with a frequency of 83.3%. Signs and/or symptoms most frequent in children with RVC were fever (80%), vomiting (83.3%) and dehydration (100%). In summary, in this study it was possible the characterization and phylogenetic analysis of VP6, VP7, VP4 and NSP4 genes, providing important data regarding the presence of these agents in hospitalized children with gastroenteritis in the metropolitan region of Belém, Pará.
|
