Comparative analysis of nearly full-length hepatitis C virus quasispecies from patients experiencing viral breakthrough during antiviral therapy: clustered mutations in three functional genes, E2, NS2, and NS5a.

ABSTRACT: Viral breakthrough is a recognized response pattern to interferon-based antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The emergence of drug-resistant HCV quasispecies variants is assumed to be a major mechanism responsible for viral breakthrough. By using a long reverse transcription-PCR protocol recently developed in our lab, multiple nearly full-length HCV quasispecies variants were generated from 9.1-kb amplicons at both the baseline and breakthrough points in two patients experiencing viral breakthrough. Comparative analyses of consensus dominant quasispecies variants revealed that most mutations, occurring at the time of breakthrough, involved three functional viral genes, E2, NS2, and NS5a. Interestingly, similar mutation patterns were also observed in

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2546966 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature