Transmission of low-density hepatitis C viral particles during sexually transmitted acute resolving infection.
Hepatitis C viruses in the blood of chronically infected patients are heterogeneous in density with the presence of lipoprotein associated viral particles of lower density than conventional virions. If low-density viral particles have been shown to be infectious in animal models it is currently not known whether these particles display the same infectivity for humans. In a case of sexually transmitted acute resolving infection, all isolated NS3 sequences from the acute-phase isolate clustered with a single sequence from the chronic carrier isolate, suggesting bottlenecking during transmission. To determine the density of the transmitted viruses, viral quasispecies from fractions with density below and above 1.055 g/ml were isolated and prepared from the plasma of the chronically infected sexual partner. Interestingly, the three closest sequences to the recipient consensus sequence were isolated from the low-density fraction. These data suggest that low-density viral particles are infectious for humans as they are for chimpanzees and that they can be transmitted during sexual intercourse.
D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D015229:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014771:Virion / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases
D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C084422:NS3 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases