1National Institute of Virology, 130/1, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune, India-411 021.
2Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkatta-700 073, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
Nipah virus (NV) discovered in Penisular Malaysia in 1998 is a deadly disease with very high mortality. The virus belongs to the family paramyxoviridae and contains single stranded non-segmented RNA genome of negative polarity, of 18252 size. During an intrafamilial outbreak of Nipah virus in Nadia, West Bengal, autopsied lung tissue was collected and shown to be NV RNA positive and used for the characterization of the genome. 10% lung suspension was prepared in PBS in BSL 3+ facility. NV RNA was extracted from 250 ml sample using TRIzol reagent. The entire genome was amplified in 36 fragments using primers designed on the basis of available sequences. PCR products were purified and sequenced using Big dye cycle sequencing kit (ABI, USA). The whole genome sequence of the virus was determined (18252 nucleotides). Phylogentic analysis performed using MEGA version 4 software documented that the Indian isolate was similar to the virus from Bangladesh with 99. 20% nucleotide and 99.80% amino acid identify. The Indian virus is identical to the neighboring Bangladesh virus suggesting common source.
