Hepatitis B virus genotypes from European origin explains the high endemicity found in some areas from southern Brazil Dennis Armando Bertolini a,⇑ , Michele Soares Gomes-Gouvêa b , Isabel Maria Vicente Guedes de Carvalho-Mello c , Cláudia Patara Saraceni d , Roberta Sitnik e , Felipe Gobbi Grazziotin f , Jomar Pereira Laurindo h , Nelson Jurandi Rosa Fagundes f,g , Flair José Carrilho b , João Renato Rebello Pinho b,e a Laboratório de Imunologia Clínica, Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Biomedicina, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil b Laboratory of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, São Paulo Institute of Tropical Medicine and Department of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil c Laboratório de Imunologia Viral, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil d Serviço de Virologia, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil e Departamento de Patologia Clínica, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil f Laboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil g Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil h Instituto de Biotecnologia, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil article info Article history: Received 6 December 2011 Received in revised form 30 March 2012 Accepted 8 April 2012 Available online xxxx Keywords: Hepatitis B virus Genotypes Genotype D Migration Brazil Europe abstract Southern Brazil is considered an area of low Hepatitis B endemicity, but some areas of higher endemicity have been described in the Southwest of Paraná and Santa Catarina states. The aim of this study was to evaluate viral genotypes circulating throughout Paraná state. PCR amplification and partial sequencing of the S gene was carried out in 228 samples from HBsAg positive candidate blood donors. Samples have been collected in seven different counties (Cascavel, Curitiba, Foz do Iguaçu, Francisco Beltrão, Maringá, Londrina and Paranaguá). The most common HBV genotype in Paraná state was D (82.9%; 189/228), followed by A (14.1%; 32/228). Genotypes F (1.3%; 3/228), C (1.3%; 3/228) and H (0.4%; 1/228) were also found. Distribution of genotypes was different in the studied counties, but genotype D was the most fre- quent in all of them. In Francisco Beltrão, all studied samples belonged to genotype D. The high prevalence of HBV genotype D in South of Brazil is explained by the intense migration of settlers from Europeans coun- tries. Subgenotypes A1 and A2 were identified circulating in all cities where HBV/A was found. As observed in other areas of Brazil, HBV/A1 is more frequent than the HBV/A2 in Paraná state and its presence was significantly larger in black and mulatto individuals. Genotype C was found only in individuals with Asian ancestry from Londrina and Maringá. Most HBV/F sequences identified in this study were classified as subgenotype F2a that was previously described in Brazil. The sole case of subgenotype F4 was from Foz do Iguaçu city, near to Northern Argentina, where F4 is highly prevalent. The single genotype H sample was from Curitiba. This is the first case of this genotype described in Brazil. Further studies should be car- ried out to determine if more genotype H samples can be found in other populations from Brazil. Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still one of the major causes of chronic liver diseases, including chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (Lok and McMahon, 2009). HBV, as a member of the Hepadnaviridae family, is a circular, partially double-stranded DNA virus and is classified into eight genotypes, designated A to H (Kramvis et al., 2008; Norder et al., 2004). Recently, two new additional, HBV genotypes, HBV/I and HBV/J, were proposed, which were isolated in Vietnam (Tran et al., 2008) and Japan (Tatematsu et al., 2009), respectively. How- ever, because these strains are recombinants with other genotypes, their classification as new genotypes is under discussion (Kurbanov et al., 2010). Currently, HBV genotypes are defined based on an intergroup divergence of 7.5% or more in the complete nucleotide sequence or 4% in the partial sequence of the open reading frame that code for the surface antigens (PreS1/PreS2/S) in the region covering the small protein (HBsAg) (Kramvis et al., 2008; Norder et al., 2004). Furthermore, based on a divergence of >4% and <8% in the complete nucleotide sequence within a genotype, subgenotypes 1567-1348/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2012.04.009 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Department of Clinical Analyses, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Avenida Colombo 5790, 87020–900 Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. Tel.: +55 44 3011 4878; fax: +55 44 3011 4860. E-mail address: dabertolini@uem.br (D.A. Bertolini). Infection, Genetics and Evolution xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Infection, Genetics and Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meegid Please cite this article in press as: Bertolini, D.A., et al. Hepatitis B virus genotypes from European origin explains the high endemicity found in some areas from southern Brazil. Infect. Genet. Evol. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2012.04.009