Human pegivirus-1 (HPgV-1) RNA prevalence and genotypes in volunteer blood donors from the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract : Objectives: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of Human Pegivirus-1 (HPgV-1) viremia and genotype diversity among healthy blood donors from the Eastern Brazilian Amazon (city of Macapá, State of Amapá). There is little information for prevalence and circulation of HPgV-1 in this remote Brazilian region. Materials and methods: We conducted a study evaluating the HPgV-1 RNA prevalence and circulating genotypes in 431 volunteer blood donors originating from the Eastern Brazilian Amazon. The obtained HPgV-1 positive samples were submitted to sequencing and genotyping analysis in order to examine the genotype diversity of this virus in the Brazilian Amazon. Results: Our results demonstrated a prevalence of HPgV-1 RNA in 9.5% of the tested blood donors. The phylogenetic analyses of the detected positive samples showed the presence of HPgV-1 genotypes 1, 2 and 3. The most frequently detected genotype was 2 (78.0% of the cases) represented by sub-genotypes 2A (39.0%) and 2B (39.0%). At lower rates, genotypes 1 (14.6%) and 3 (7.4%) were also detected. Conclusion: Our results revealed the presence of genotypes with European, Asiatic and African endemicity in Amazonian blood donors, probably due to the complex miscegenation processes that took place in this Brazilian region. More investigations, including information for the prevalence of HPgV-1 RNA in blood donors from other Latin American countries are needed to estimate the viremic rates and genotype distribution of this virus in a highly diverse continent like South America.