Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/liv.15842
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Monitoring of hepatitis E virus in wastewater can identify clinically relevant variants
Author Rau, F.; Elsner, C.; Meister, T.L.; Gömer, A.; Kallies, R.; Dittmer, U.; Steinmann, E.; Todt, D.
Source Titel Liver International
Year 2024
Department AME
Volume 44
Issue 3
Page From 637
Page To 643
Language englisch
Topic T7 Bioeconomy
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fliv.15842&file=liv15842-sup-0001-Supino.pdf
Keywords hepatitis E virus; surveillance; treatment plants; wastewater; wastewater-based epidemiology
Abstract Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is prevalent worldwide and can cause persistent infection with severe morbidity. Antiviral treatment approaches can lead to the emergence of viral variants encoding escape mutations that may impede viral clearance. The frequency of these variants remains unknown in the human population as well as environment due to limited comprehensive data on HEV diversity. In this study, we investigated the HEV prevalence and diversity of circulating variants in environmental samples, that is, wastewater and rivers from North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. HEV prevalence could be determined with 73% of samples tested positive for viral RNA via qRT-PCR. Using high-throughput sequencing, we were able to assess the overall genetic diversity in these samples and identified the presence of clinically relevant variants associated with drug resistance. In summary, monitoring variants from environmental samples could provide valuable insights into estimating HEV prevalence and identifying circulating variants that can impact treatment outcome.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=28758
Rau, F., Elsner, C., Meister, T.L., Gömer, A., Kallies, R., Dittmer, U., Steinmann, E., Todt, D. (2024):
Monitoring of hepatitis E virus in wastewater can identify clinically relevant variants
Liver Int. 44 (3), 637 - 643 10.1111/liv.15842