Abstract
Purpose: :
To report a novel human adenovirus (HAdV) caused nosocomial infections of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) in Japan.
Methods: :
A total of 80 HAdVs were isolated from patients with EKC at 6 different hospitals in Japan. The partial hexon gene sequences of the isolates were determined and compared to those of prototype strains of 51 serotypes.
Results: :
1. All isolates had an identical partial hexon nucleotide sequence. 2. The phylogenetic analysis classified these isolates in species of HAdV-D. 3. The isolates represented 93.9% to 95.1% nucleotide identities with HAdV-D prototype strains, whereas all 32 prototype strains in HAdV-D ranged from 93.2% to 99.2%. 4. The sequence of the Loop 2 region and fiber knob region from the representative strain was dissimilar from all prototype strains of 51 serotypes. 5. A quantitative neutralization assay and restriction cleavage pattern suggested that these strains were a novel serotype in the species HAdV-D
Conclusions: :
This virus is a novel serotype of human adenoviruses, which cause EKC in Japan.
Keywords: adenovirus • conjunctivitis • inflammation