Chronic hepatitis C of drug users: Influence of HIV infection

Pol, S.; Thi, Ngoc Trinh; Thiers, Valérie; Jaffredo, Franck; Carnot, Françoise; B, Lamorthe; Zylberberg, Hervé; Berthelot, Pièrre; Bréchot, C; Nalpas, Bertrand

doi:10.1016/0270-9139(95)95081-8

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, in some in vitro cell culture systems, HCV replication is cytolitic, eventually leading to persistent low-level replication in surviving cells [80,93]. Also, the more severe course of infection in patients co-infected with HIV [94,95] or agammaglobulinaemia [96] would argue in favour of at least some direct viral damage. On the other hand, HCV infection elicits a broad and strong humoral and cellular response to many HCV-encoded antigens and the host immune response is involved in liver damage as well as in controlling viral replication (see below).…”

Section: Quasispecies and Liver Damagementioning

confidence: 99%

Hepatitis C viral quasispecies

Gómez¹,

Martell²,

Quer³

et al. 1999

Journal of Viral Hepatitis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Analysing significant numbers of cDNA clones of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) from single isolates provides unquestionable proof that the viral genome cannot be defined by a single sequence, but rather by a population of variant sequences closely related to one another. This way of organizing the genetic information is referred to as quasispecies. Throughout HCV infection, the number and composition of the variants in the viral population keeps changing owing to environmental influences, resulting in a virus that is constantly redefining itself both genetically and phenotypically. Therefore, the virus has often been investigated in population terms. Many clinical studies have tried to unravel, through the parameters that characterize the HCV quasispecies, prognostic markers of the disease and its response to treatment. Other investigations have focused on discovering how the virus and host interact during chronic infection. The consensus sequence, the rate of fixation of mutations and the complexity of the viral population are useful parameters for describing the viral population behaviour and its interaction with the host. In addition to sequencing, several other methods, based on electrophoretic mobility, have been used to study these parameters, such as temperature gradient-gel electrophoresis, single-strand conformation polymorphism and gel-shift analysis. The viral region examined, the source of clinical specimen, as well as the methodology employed, will be decisive in interpreting the information obtained.

show abstract