Asthma is a chronic disease with multiple environmental and genetic causes. Determining the role of
rhinovirus in asthma incidence and exacerbation could improve the controlling measures for this
disease. This study aims to detect and genotype human rhinovirus (HRV) in asthmatic patients in Iraqi
population. A total of 45 patients with asthma participated in this study. Viral RNA was extracted from
nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) and cDNA was created using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain
reaction (PCR). Specific primers for HRV were used with two rounds nested-PCR to amplify the 5’-
noncoding region of the viral genome. PCR products of the second round nested-PCR underwent direct
sequencing and the resultant sequences were aligned with reference sequences in GenBank. MEGA 5
software was used to construct phylogenetic tree between eight successfully sequenced isolates and
eight reference isolates. Alignment of viral sequence revealed highly genetic diversity between these
sequences and the reference isolates. Phylogenetic tree showed that five isolates belong to Human
Rhinovirus- A (HRV-A), while three isolate belong to Human Rhinovirus-C (HRV-C). The HRV-C was
detected and genotyped for the first time in Iraq. The results of the current study suggest the significant
role of HRV infection among patients with exacerbated asthma in Iraq.
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2017
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