PREDICTION OF EFFECT OF INTERFERON ON CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C

Clinical, pathological, and virological analysis including hypervariab le region-1 of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was performed to predict the ef fect of interferon (IFN) on 41 patients with chronic hepatitis type C. The low virus load, low frequency of the mutation in the hypervariabl e region-1 as the change of amino acid and high level of serum aminotr ansferase make one estimate the good effect of IFN on patients with HC V. Mutation in the hypervariable region-1 of HCV measured by fast assa y fluorescence single-stranded conformational polymorphism was more fr equent in nonresponders to IFN than responders. The most frequently mu tated position was amino acid number 406. This indicates that the spec ific mutation site might affect the response of IFN.