Differential sensitivity of hepatitis C virus quasispecies to interferon-alpha therapy.
The quasispecies nature of hepatitis C virus was investigated in a patient with chronic hepatitis C virus infection who underwent interferon-alpha therapy. The hepatitis C virus E2/NS1 region was amplified and cloned, and multiple clones were sequenced before and after interferon-alpha therapy. The hepatitis C virus quasispecies can be grouped into three groups by phylogenetic tree analysis. Quasispecies from all the groups were present before interferon-alpha therapy. However, only group 3 remained after interferon-alpha therapy. In addition, only group 3 hepatitis C virus quasispecies were present during the early biochemical relapse. These data indicate that various groups of hepatitis C virus quasispecies may have different sensitivity to interferon-alpha.
Mizokami
M
M
Second Department of Medicine, Nagoya City University, Japan.
Lau
J Y
JY
Suzuki
K
K
Nakano
T
T
Gojobori
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010802:Phylogeny
D016898:Interferon-alpha