The goal of treatment of chronic hepatitis C is to achieve a sustained virological response, which is defined as exhibiting undetectable hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels in serum following therapy for at least six months. However, the current treatment is only effective in 50% of patients infected with HCV genotype 1, the most prevalent genotype in Brazil. Inhibitors of the serine protease non-structural protein 3 (NS3) have therefore been developed to improve the responses of HCV-infected patients. However, the emergence of drug-resistant variants has been the major obstacle to therapeutic success. The goal of this study was to evaluate the presence of resistance mutations and genetic polymorphisms in the NS3 genomic region of HCV from 37 patients infected with HCV genotype 1 had not been treated with protease inhibitors. Plasma viral RNA was used to amplify and sequence the HCV NS3 gene. The results indicate that the catalytic triad is conserved. A large number of substitutions were observed in codons 153, 40 and 91; the resistant variants T54A, T54S, V55A, R155K and A156T were also detected. This study shows that resistance mutations and genetic polymorphisms are present in the NS3 region of HCV in patients who have not been treated with protease inhibitors, data that are important in determining the efficiency of this new class of drugs in Brazil.

No abstract

Introduction:In this study, we evaluated hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) -platelet interactions in vitro as well as human platelets antigen (HPA) polymorphisms. Methods: Platelets were obtained from 100 healthy HPA-genotyped volunteer donors and incubated with HIV or HCV. The viral load after in vitro exposure was detected. Results: The viral load in the platelets after exposure to the virus was higher in the HIV exposure than in the HCV exposure. Conclusions: HIV-platelet ligation could be more effi cient than HCV-platelet interaction. Further, the HPA-1b allele seems to infl uence the interaction of platelets with HCV.

No abstract

No abstract