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Virus Genes (2011) 42:200203 DOI 10.1007/s11262-010-0567-3
Letter to the editor: molecular genotyping of Dengue Virus Types 2 and 4 from the Guatemalan and Honduran Epidemics of 2007 using the envelope glycoprotein gene
Yuxin Tang Miguel Quintana Chunlin Zhang Tao Li Daniel Sauls
Robert Putnak Sofa Carolina Alvarado Dina Jeaneth Castro
Mara Luisa Matute Julia A. Lynch
Received: 6 August 2010 / Accepted: 27 December 2010 / Published online: 14 January 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC (Outside the USA) 2011
Abstract Eight serum specimens collected from dengue patients in Guatemala and Honduras during the Central American epidemic of 2007 were analyzed. Virus identication and serotyping performed by a nested RT-PCR assay revealed two DENV-1 isolates from Guatemala, four DENV-2 isolates, two each from Guatemala and Honduras, and two DENV-4 isolates from Honduras. Viral genotyping determined by phylogenetic analysis of the complete envelope gene sequences demonstrated that the DENV-2 isolates from Guatemala and Honduras fell into the American/Asian Genotype III, and were most closely related to DENV-2/NI/BID-V2683-1999 isolated from a dengue case in Nicaragua in 1999; and the DENV-4 F07-076 isolate from Honduras belonged to genotype II, and was most closely related to DENV-4/US/BID-V1093/1998 isolated from Puerto Rico in 1998. Our results suggest that
the 2007 dengue outbreaks in Guatemala and Honduras were most likely caused by the re-emergence of earlier, indigenous DENV strains rather than by newly introduced strains and there were at least three serotypes of DENV co-circulating during the 2007 Central American epidemics.
Keywords Dengue virus Serotyping Sequencing
Phylogenetic analysis
Dengue (DEN) is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease affecting millions of people in the tropics and subtropics caused by four serotypes of DEN viruses (DENVs), which can infect humans resulting in a wide spectrum of DEN disease ranging from acute febrile dengue fever (DF) to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) [13]. DEN has been spreading rapidly across the world in the past three decades. South-east Asia and the Western Pacic are the most seriously affected areas [4]. However, recently in the America the incidence of DEN cases has increased dramatically accompanied by an increase in severe forms of the disease [5]. During 2007 in the Americas there were 900,782 reported cases of DEN with 26,413 DHF and 317 deaths. In Central...