title: Distinct composition of viral quasispecies between ascites and serum samples from patients with late stage chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: By performing single-strand conformation polymorphism and PCR-cloning followed by sequencing, the amino acid composition of hepatitis C virus hypervariable and variable regions were analyzed in ascites and serum samples from two patients with late stage chronic hepatitis C. In patient-LC, the major ascitic clone was constituted by a minor serum-derived clone, while the major serum derived clone was absent in the ascites. In patient-HCC, the major ascitic clone was defective and genetically different from all the serum-derived clones. In addition, anti-genomic HCV RNA was detected in the ascitic mononuclear cells from patient-LC. These results argued that the peritoneal cavity served as a relatively isolated environment for evolution of distinct composition of viral quasispecies.
authors.affiliation: Liver Research Unit, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Medical College, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Y F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Liaw
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001201:Ascites / Q000821:virology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; C097010:NS2 protein, Hepatitis C virus; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins