Classical human astroviruses in symptomatic and asymptomatic children of Goiás, Brazil: Positivity rates, viral loads, and molecular characterization

Classical human astroviruses (HAstV) are agents of nonbacterial acute gastroenteritis (AGE), being predominant among children. There are only a few studies reporting HAstV loads in samples from patients with AGE, data are even scarcer regarding asymptomatic patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence and estimate the viral load of HAstV and to perform molecular characterization of positive samples obtained from children, up to 6 years old, with and without AGE. One fecal sample was obtained from each of the 250 children enrolled in the study, from May 2014 to April 2015. Real‐time reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR TaqMan) was performed, followed by a conventional RT‐PCR directed to ORF2, region C, of the positive samples. Then, these amplicons were sequenced and a phylogenetic analysis was performed to determine the HAstV‐1 lineages. A global positivity index of 3.2% (8 of 250) was observed for HAstV with a similar frequency (50%) in both symptomatic and asymptomatic group. Viral loads ranged from 2.8 × 10 5 to 1.6 × 10 11 genome copy/mL Four samples were characterized as HAstV‐1, lineage 1a and two as HAstV‐4, lineage 4c. Our findings show similar HAstV positivity rates for children with and without AGE, providing evidence of HAstV‐1a and HAstV‐4c lineage cocirculation in the Central West region of Brazil. Data contributes to the molecular epidemiology of these agents in the region.