Nr. 12(3)/2008

Elena Luminiţa Enache, Liviu S. Enache

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease, the prevalence of the infection being currently estimated at approximately 170 milion persons worldwide. HCV isolates have been classified into six main genotypes. Quick and accurate genotyping of HCV is becoming increasingly important for clinical management of chronic infection and as an epidemiological marker. Genotyping methods are frequently based on the analysis of the 5’ untranslated region (5’UTR) of HCV genome, which is not appropriate for the accurate discrimination of HCV strains at a subtype level. The newly developed Versant HCV Genotype 2.0 Assay (LiPA) uses sequence information from both the 5’UTR and the core region allowing the distinction between subtypes 1a and 1b inside genotype 1 and between genotype 1 and subtypes c to l of genotype 6. Hereby, we make a review of the literature evaluating this new genotyping assay.

Keywords: hepatitis C virus,genotyping,reverse hybridization,sequencing.