Characteristics of bacterial and viral contamination of urban waters: a case study in Xi'an, China

Evolutionary pattern of 5'-UTR of enteroviruses and primer update for the detection of enteroviral RNA in environmental samples

OBJECTIVE

To study the recombination events among enterovirus strains and the development of specific primers for the detection of enteroviruses in environmental samples.

METHODS

Nucleotide sequence analysis of enteroviruses deposited in the international database GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank) was conducted to develop specific primers for the detection of these viruses. The specificity and sensitivity of the method were tested using coxackievirus B3 strain Nancy, environmental isolate of human hepatitis A virus and human rotavirus strain WA. Seventy sewage samples were analyzed.

RESULTS

Enterovirus genome was detected in all positive samples. The genome of enterovirus was not detected in negative samples. The level of detection of these viruses was 10(2) TCID(50)/mL.

CONCLUSIONS

The development of new primers is an important issue for the detection of enteroviruses in the environment and the assessment of risk factors to human health.

Detection and quantification of enteroviruses in coastal seawaters from Bohai Bay, Tianjin, China

An 8-month survey was conducted to detect and quantify enteroviruses in Tianjin coastal seawaters of Bohai Bay to assess coastal water quality. Ten water samples were collected from Bohai Bay for the detection and quantification of enteroviruses by conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and SYBR Green real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). Total viral nucleic acid was extracted from 500 mL of seawater samples concentrated by Centricon plus-70 centrifugal filter devices. The viral recovery rate was 29.1% based on viral seeding study. The centrifugal ultrafiltration method applied is effective for viral recovery from small volume of polluted water, which may have broader applications to monitoring human virus in aquatic environment. Our results indicated that there was a severe viral contamination in seawater of Bohai Bay. Enteroviruses were detected at concentrations ranging from 1.7 x 10(6) to 6.3 x 10(7) copies/L by qRT-PCR. Sequencing analyses identified that all of the twenty clones as poliovirus type 2. This is the first quantitative report of human viruses in coastal waters of a metropolitan city in China. This study emphasized the importance for the local and central governments to monitor and assess the water quality.

Simultaneous detection of enteroviruses from surface waters by real-time RT-PCR with universal primers

In order to realize simultaneous quantitative detection of various enteroviruses from water samples, a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) method was developed with universal primer pairs designed based on the highly conserved non-coding region sequences of genome targeting poliovirus, coxsackievirus and enterovirus 71. The recombinant plasmid was constructed as enterovirus DNA standard by cloning poliovirus cDNA into a pMD18-T vector. The real-time RT-PCR method utilizing SYBR Green I was optimized. As a result of a series of examinations, the detection limit of the method was found to be 2.31 genome equivalent copy (GEC)/microL, the intra- and inter-assay variations were lower than 2% and 5%, respectively, and enteroviruses were well distinguished from other microorganisms. There was a good linear relationship (r2 = 0.997) between the logarithm of viral density and cycle threshold in a wide range of 2.31 x 10(0) to 2.31 x 10(9) GEC/microL. The validity of the method was further proved by its application for the detection of enteroviruses from various practical water samples.