GB virus C
| GB virus C | |
|---|---|
| Virus classification | |
| Group: | Group IV ((+)ssRNA) |
| Order: | Unassigned |
| Family: | Flaviviridae |
| Genus: | Pegivirus |
| Species: | GB virus C |
GB virus C (GBV-C), formerly known as hepatitis G virus (HGV) and also known as HPgV is a virus in the Flaviviridae family and a member of the Pegivirus genus, is known to infect humans, but is not known to cause human disease. There have been reports that HIV patients coinfected with GBV-C can survive longer than those without GBV-C, but the patients may be different in other ways. There is current active research into the virus' effects on the immune system in patients coinfected with GBV-C and HIV.
Hepatitis G virus and GB virus C (GBV-C) are RNA viruses that were independently identified in 1995, and were subsequently found to be two isolates of the same virus. Although GBV-C was initially thought to be associated with chronic hepatitis, extensive investigation failed to identify any association between this virus and any clinical illness. GB Virus C (and indeed, GBV-A and GBV-B) is named after the surgeon, G. Barker, who fell ill in 1966 with a non-A non-B hepatitis which at the time was thought to have been caused by a new, infectious hepatic virus.
GBV-C is a member of the Flaviviridae family and is phylogenetically related to hepatitis C virus, but replicates primarily in lymphocytes, and poorly, if at all, in hepatocytes. GBV-A and GBV-B are probably tamarin viruses, while GBV-C infects humans. The GB viruses have been tentatively assigned to a fourth genus within the Flaviviridae named "Pegivirus", but this has yet to be formally endorsed by The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
Another member of this clade, GBV-D, has been isolated from a bat (Pteropus giganteus). GBV-D may be ancestral to GBV-A and GBV-C.
The mutation rate of the GBV-C genome has been estimated at 10−2 to 10−3 substitutions/site/year.
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