CHARACTERIZATION OF THE 5' NONCODING AND STRUCTURAL REGION OF THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOME FROM PATIENTS WITH NON-A, NON-B-HEPATITIS RESPONDING DIFFERENTLY TO INTERFERON TREATMENT
T. Nakazawa et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF THE 5' NONCODING AND STRUCTURAL REGION OF THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOME FROM PATIENTS WITH NON-A, NON-B-HEPATITIS RESPONDING DIFFERENTLY TO INTERFERON TREATMENT, Journal of hepatology, 20(5), 1994, pp. 623-629
We examined 14 patients with hepatitis C caused by infection with the
hepatitis C virus-II genotype to understand differences in responsiven
ess to interferon. The patients were classified into two groups accord
ing to their response to interferon: eight responding and six non-resp
onding patients. The 5' noncoding and structural regions of the hepati
tis C virus-II genome from each patient specimen were amplified by rev
erse transcription followed by the polymerase chain reaction. The nucl
eotide sequences of these amplified DNAs were then determined. By comp
aring the nucleotide sequences and the deduced amino acid sequences of
samples from both groups, no group-specific sequence was observed in
the analyzed regions despite the presence of considerable sequence div
ersity. However, additional cysteine residues were observed in half th
e responding group. The degree of micro-heterogeneity in hypervariable
region 1 of the hepatitis C virus in relation to the sensitivity to i
nterferon treatment was also examined; however, no significant correla
tion was observed. In addition, frequent alterations in the amino acid
sequences were observed in hypervariable region I during the course o
f interferon treatment. (C) Journal of Hepatology.