Naturally occurring hepatitis C virus protease inhibitors resistance-associated mutations among chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b patients with or without HIV co-infection.
The aim of this study was to measure the frequency of natural mutations in hepatitis C virus (HCV) mono-infected and HIV/HCV co-infected protease inhibitor (PI)-naive patients.


METHODS
Population sequence of the non-structural (NS)3 protease gene was evaluated in 90 HCV mono-infected and 96 HIV/HCV co-infected PI treatment-naive patients. The natural prevalence of PI resistance mutations in both groups was compared.


RESULTS
Complete HCV genotype 1b NS3 sequence information was obtained for 152 (81.72%) samples. Seven sequences (8.33%) of the 84 HCV mono-infected patients and 21 sequences (30.88%) of the 68 HIV/HCV co-infected patients showed amino acid substitutions associated with HCV PI resistance. There was a significant difference in the natural prevalence of PI resistance mutations between these two groups (P = 0.000). The mutations T54S, R117H and N174F were observed in 1.19%, 5.95% and 1.19% of HCV mono-infected patients. The mutations F43S, T54S, Q80K/R, R155K, A156G/V, D168A/E/G and V170A were found in 1.47%, 4.41%, 1.47%/1.47%, 2.94%, 23.53%/1.47%, 1.47%/1.47%/1.47% and 1.47% of HIV/HCV co-infected patients, respectively. In addition, the combination mutations in the NS3 region were detected only in HIV/HCV genotype 1b co-infected patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Naturally occurring HCV PI resistance mutations existed in HCV mono-infected and HIV/HCV co-infected genotype 1b PI-naive patients. HIV co-infection was associated with a greater frequency of PI resistance mutations. The impact of HIV infection on baseline HCV PI resistance mutations and treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients should be further analyzed.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Ying
Y
Cao
Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Yu
Y
Zhang
Department of Neurology, Shiyan Taihe Hospital, Shiyan, China.
Yi
Y
Bao
Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Renwen
R
Zhang
Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Xiaxia
X
Zhang
Department of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Wei
W
Xia
Department of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Hao
H
Wu
Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Xiaoyuan
X
Xu
HIV/hepatitis C virus co-infection; hepatitis C virus; non-structural 3 protease inhibitor; resistance mutation