0000000000300295
AUTHOR
Cristina Alaimo
Identification of human rotavirus strains with the P[14] genotype by PCR
ABSTRACT A seminested PCR typing assay has been extended to identify rotavirus strains with the P[14] genotype. The specificity of the method was confirmed by Southern hybridization and by restriction analysis with the enzyme Alu I. One out of four human rotavirus (HRV) strains with unusual subgroup-electropherotype linkage but none out of 50 HRV strains with usual linkage was typed as P[14].
Rotavirus gastroenteritis in Italian children: can severity of symptoms be related to the infecting virus?
The aim of our study was to determine whether the severity of rotavirus gastroenteritis may be related to the different characteristics of infecting viral strains. The severity of clinical symptoms in 401 children with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis was assessed using a scoring system for frequency and duration of vomiting, diarrhea, and fever, as well as the patients' requirements for intravenous rehydration. Rotavirus strains were characterized by determining the electropherotype of their double-stranded RNA, the G type and subgroup by a panel of monoclonal antibodies, and the P type by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Strains with a short electropherotype, G2P[4] type, a…