Subtyping of adenovirus strains isolated from patients pre-diagnosed with keratoconjunctivitis

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and determine the subtypes of human adenovirus (hAdV) in conjunctival swab samples taken from patients clinically pre-diagnosed as keratoconjunctivitis. MATERIALS/METHODS: Between January 2018 and November 2019, 82 patients with pre-diagnosed keratoconjunctivitis who had positive results with the AdenoPlus ™ (Rapid Pathogen Screening Inc., USA) rapid diagnostic kit were included in the study. The nucleic acid extraction and quantitation were performed by ELITe InGenius® (ELITechGroup, Italy) instrument using quantitative real-time PCR method. DNA sequence analysis was performed with ABI PRISM® 3100 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, USA). The obtained hAdV DNA sequences were typed by BLAST analysis and the genotypes were identified by using the reference hAdV sequences of the NCBI. In order to evaluate the disinfection effectiveness applied in the ophthalmology outpatient clinic and to raise awareness, we investigated the presence of adenovirus by taking environmental swab samples. RESULTS: hADV positivity was confirmed in 82 patients with pre-diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis. Three genotypes were identified from 72 hexon gene positive samples: hAdV-8 (n: 69, 95.8%), hAdV-4 (n: 2, 2.8%), hAdV-19 (n: 1, 1.4%). The median viral load was 7,1 log 10 copies/mL (4,7- 7,4). No predominant genetic relation was observed from the phylogenetic tree. hADV positivity was detected even after disinfection procedures in environmental samples. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first study in our province and region for the genotyping of adenoviruses in ocular infections, and our findings will contribute to relevant national molecular epidemiological data.