Persistent gastroenteritis in children infected with astrovirus: Association with serotype-3 strains

• Published in: Journal of medical virology 2003-10, Vol.71 (2), p.245-250
• Main Authors: Caballero, Santiago, Guix, Susana, El-Senousy, Waled Morsy, Calicó, Ignasi, Pintó, Rosa M., Bosch, Albert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astroviridae Infections - epidemiology; Astroviridae Infections - virology; Biological and medical sciences; Centrifugation, Density Gradient; Child; Child, Preschool; competitive RT-PCR; Diarrhea - epidemiology; Diarrhea - virology; epidemiology; Feces - virology; Gastroenteritis - epidemiology; Gastroenteritis - virology; Human viral diseases; Humans; Incidence; Infectious diseases; Mamastrovirus - classification; Mamastrovirus - genetics; Mamastrovirus - isolation & purification; Medical sciences; quantification; Reference Standards; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; RNA, Viral - analysis; Serotyping; stool; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the digestive system
• ISSN: 0146-6615; 1096-9071
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.10476

The relationship between cases of persistent diarrhoea and the levels and type of human astrovirus was investigated. The potential correlation between human astrovirus excretion levels and the occurrence of protracted gastroenteritis was elucidated after quantifying astroviruses in faecal samples by a competitive RT‐PCR. This assay was developed employing an internal RNA standard constructed for this purpose and showed a threshold of positivity of 3.4 × 104 genomes per gram of faeces. By this procedure, the levels of astrovirus, belonging to serotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8, in faecal samples could be ascertained to range from 3.4 × 108 to 1 × 1013 per gram of faeces. The mean viral titre in the serotype 3‐containing faeces was higher than in any of the other serotype‐containing samples. In children with no background disease, persistent gastroenteritis cases were detected in 8.5% of the astrovirus infections, and 37.5% of those were associated with astrovirus type 3 infection. In addition, 42.9% of astrovirus 3 isolates were implicated with persistent cases, some of them lasting for 3 months. Other type 3 isolates, detected in the faeces in very large numbers, caused severe gastroenteritis. J. Med. Virol. 71:245–250, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.