Hepatitis C Virus Genotyping by Melting Curve Analysis in West Azerbaijan, Northwest of Iran

Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has contaminated almost 170 million people worldwide. The HCV genotype is a good predictor of response to antiviral therapies and prognosis. In this study, we tried by using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and melting curve analysis, to identify the HCV genotype isolated from affected patients. Methods: Using PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), serum sample of 310 suspicious patients with HCV were screened. Applying QIAamp Viral RNA Mini-kit, the viral RNA was collected from serum samples of 160 positive patients. Using one-step RT-PCR protocol, genotypes of the isolated HCV were specified according to the temperature melting (Tm) ranges. Results: The frequency distribution of the 5 detected HCV genotypes (i.e., 1a/b, 2a/c, 4, 2b, and 3a) in 160 cases, were as follows: 77 (48.12%) were genotype 3a; 35(21.87%) had genotype 2b; 19 (11.87%) were 2a/c; 16 (10.0%) were 4; and 13 (8.12%) had genotype 1a/b. Conclusions: The most common HCV genotype in West Azerbaijan province in the Northwest of Iran is type 3a. We