detection of human bocavirus 1, 2 and 3 from patients with acute gastroenteritis

aim : we aimed to investigate the prevalence of human bocavirus isolates among iranian patients suffering from acute gastroenteritis. background : human bocavirus is a new parvovirus that has been identified in association with gastroenteritis. limited data are available about hbov in iran. patients and methods : viral dna was extracted from all 294 stool samples. hbov dna was detected in extracted samples by polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplification of a 354 bp of noncapsid protein 1 (np1) gene. in addition, all samples were also subjected to a nested pcr to amplify a 455 bp of nonstructural 1 (ns1) gene. results : the main clinical symptoms among hbov positive patients were diarrhea (77.7%), fever (62.9%), vomiting (55.5%), and anorexia (59.2%). np1 pcr was positive in 8 samples (2.72%), ns1 was positive in 16 patients (5.44%) and 3 samples had positive results in both regions (1.02%). conclusion : our results suggest that hbov could be considered as one of the important etiologic agents of acute gastroenteritis cases in iran