In order to type 45 recent isolates of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) originating from four different geographic regions of the world, we performed phylogenetic analysis of a 192 nucleotides (nts) long sequence from the 5'non-coding region (5'-NCR) of the virus genome and compared them with 55 HCV isolates/strains of known type. The results of this study showed that phylogenetic studies can assign an HCV isolate to the correct type in 100% and to the correct subtype in 98%. A comparison ofthis method with other methods using commercial kits revealed that it is appropriate for clinical use and is cost effective.
Departamento de Técnicas Nucleares Aplicadas, Centro de Investigaciones Nucleares, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay. cristina@cin1.cin.edu.uy
