title: Hepatitis C virus quasispecies in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of treatment naïve chronically infected patients.
abstract: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 45 treatment naïve, HIV-negative, chronically hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients were analyzed for the presence of HCV RNA. Viral RNA was detected in 73% of the studied patients. Single-strand conformation polymorphism assays and sequence analysis of the HCV 5'untranslated regions amplified from RNA recovered from both Plasma and PBMCs suggested virus compartmentalization in 57.6% of patients studied. In summary, our study presents evidence that HCV RNA can be found in PBMCs of treatment naïve chronically infected patients that are not immunocompromised or co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Virología Molecular, Centro de Investigaciones Médicas, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vera-Otarola
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Barría
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: León
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marsac
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carvallo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soza
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López-Lastra
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010949:Plasma / Q000821:virology*; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D012367:RNA, Viral