title: Evolution of hepatitis C virus in blood donors and their respective recipients.
abstract: This paper describes the study of hepatitis C virus (HCV) evolution in the largest cohort of HCV-infected blood donors (BDs)/blood recipients (BRs) reported to date (25 pairs). A molecular analysis of partial sequences in the E1 (envelope) and NS5-B (polymerase) genes was performed. Phylogenetic reconstruction showed that the evolution of dominant strains was qualitatively and quantitatively different in BDs and BRs. The evolutionary rate was significantly higher in BRs, in which, in addition, most substitutions observed were antonymous. These findings corroborate the hypothesis that a large part of virus evolution - which was evaluated to be equivalent to approximately 20 years of chronic evolution - is acquired during the early phase of infection. These findings should be taken into account for the modelling of the long-term evolution of HCV and their possible contribution to improve our understanding of HCV natural history is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cantaloube
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biagini
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Houssam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Attoui
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gallian
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Micco
authors.affiliation: Unité des Virus Emergents, Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes-Méditerranée, EA32/92-IFR48, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd J. Moulin, F-13005 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: de Lamballerie
mesh_terms: D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins; C107842:protein E1, Classical swine fever virus; C087036:NS-5 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase