detection and genotyping of hepatitis d virus from hbsag positive patients in iran using rt-pcr

hepatitis delta virus (hdv) is a degenerate rna virus or virusoid and a satellite of hepatitis b virus (hbv). three distinct genotypes are described for hdv; genotype i is distributed worldwide but other genotypes appear to be more restricted geographically. in the present study, an rt-nested pcr method was set up to detect delta infection from serum samples. moreover, the target amplified sequences corresponding to the hepatitis delta antigen (hdag) c-termini were used for genotyping. the results showed that 63.6% (23 of 36) of (hdab) positive serum samples (as determined by elisa) were also positive for hdv-rna. sequencing and phylogenic analysis of three iranian hdv isolates revealed the most homology (93%) with an italian isolate indicating a close relationship and probably a common origin for these isolates.