Abstract

Human Adenoviruses (HAdVs) are human pathogens that normally are associated with acute respiratory disease (ARD). Here, in this study, we characterized human adenovirus isolated from respiratory specimens collected from 2003 to 2011. Positive adenovirus were confirmed by cell culture and indirect immunoflourescence (IF) techniques. The isolates and positive clinical samples were subjected to adenovirus polymerase chain reaction, followed by DNA sequencing. BLAST searches and phylogenetic analysis revealed that only 2 species of HAdV, species C at 64% (47/73) and species B at 36% (26/73) were found circulating amongst ARD cases in Malaysia. Four types of HAdV species C were detected namely: HAdV-2 (66%), HAdV-1(17%), HAdV-5(13%) and HAdV-6(4%). For HAdV species B, only 2 types were detected with HAdV-3 being the highest at 58% and HAdV-7 at 42%. HadV-7 was associated with severe infections.

Key words: Human adenoviruses, acute respiratory disease, molecular characterization, gene sequences