T. Nakazawa et al., GENETIC ALTERATION OF THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS HYPERVARIABLE REGION OBTAINED FROM AN ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIER, International journal of cancer, 56(2), 1994, pp. 204-207
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome shows extensive sequence diversity at 2
hypervariable regions (HVR1 and HVR2) of the putative envelope glycop
rotein (gp70). We recently reported that the amino-acid sequence of HV
R1, but not of HVR2, underwent a striking mutation or mutated sequenti
ally over a period of several months in patients with chronic hepatiti
s (CH). Here, we examined whether these genetic alterations in HVR1 oc
curred in an asymptomatic HCV carrier. The level of HCV RNA in serum w
as almost the same throughout the 4 time points sampled over 16 months
. However, we found that the amino-acid sequence of the HCV HVR1 from
this asymptomatic carrier altered with time, as seen in patients with
CH. Alterations of amino acids in the HVR1 were correlated with persis
tent HCV infection rather than with clinical symptoms. Sequence hetero
geneity of HVR1 was not correlated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
values or liver histological findings. The necessity of clinical foll
ow-up of HCV asymptomatic carriers is discussed. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.