Prevalence and Genomic Sequence Analysis of Domestic Cat Hepadnavirus in the United States

Cassidy Stone, Raegan Petch, Roderick B. Gagne, Mary Nehring, Thomas Tu, Julia A. Beatty, Sue VandeWoude*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Hepadnaviruses are partially double-stranded DNA viruses that infect a variety of species. The prototypical virus in this family is the human hepatitis B virus, which chronically infects approximately 400 million people worldwide and is a risk factor for progressive liver disease and liver cancer. The first hepadnavirus isolated from carnivores was a domestic cat hepadnavirus (DCH), initially identified in Australia and subsequently detected in cats in Europe and Asia. As with all characterized hepadnaviruses so far, DCH infection has been associated with hepatic disease in its host. Prevalence of this infection in the United States has not been explored broadly. Thus, we utilized conventional and quantitative PCR to screen several populations of domestic cats to estimate DCH prevalence in the United States. We detected DCH DNA in 1 out of 496 animals (0.2%) in the U.S. cohort. In contrast, we detected circulating DCH DNA in 7 positive animals from a cohort of 67 domestic cats from Australia (10.4%), consistent with previous studies. The complete consensus genome of the U.S. DCH isolate was sequenced by Sanger sequencing with overlapping PCR products. An in-frame deletion of 157 bp was identified in the N-terminus of the core open reading frame. The deletion begins at the direct repeat 1 sequence (i.e., the 5′ end of the expected double-stranded linear DNA form), consistent with covalently closed circular DNA resultant from illegitimate recombination described in other hepadnaviruses. Comparative genome sequence analysis indicated that the closest described relatives of the U.S. DCH isolate are those previously isolated in Italy. Motif analysis supports DCH using NTCP as an entry receptor, similar to human HBV. Our work indicates that chronic DCH prevalence in the U.S. is likely low compared to other countries.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2091
JournalViruses
Volume14
Issue number10
Online published21 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Research Keywords

  • hepadnavirus
  • hepatitis B virus
  • immunosuppression
  • prevalence

Publisher's Copyright Statement

  • This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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