Interandintra-hostvariabilityofhepatitisCvirusgenotype1a hypervariableenvelopecodingdomainsfollowedfora4?11year of humanimmunodeficiency viruscoinfectionandhighlyactive antiretroviraltherapy

M. SEDE; L. JONES; F. MORETTI; N. LAUFER; J. QUARLERI

VIROLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2014

0042-6822

The evolution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispecies in patients with HIV-1 coinfection is not fully understood. The HCV-1a quasispecies heterogeneity was analyzed at inter and intra-host level along 7.6 years in 21 coinfected patients that showed different virological and immunological responses to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). For the studied subjects, two to nine serial samples were subjected to direct and clonal sequence analyses of the envelope glycoprotein 2 (E2) gene. E2-based phylogenies, intra-host HCV evolution and evolutionary rates, as well as dynamics of the quasispecies heterogeneity parameters were evaluated. Bayesian coalescent phylogenies indicated complex evolutionary histories, revealing that some viral lineages persisted along the follow up whereas others were present intermittently following emergence-extinction patterns. HCV quasispecies underwent rapid evolution in HAART-treated patients (~3.1x10-2 sub/site/year) thus increasing their complexity and diversity following the recovery of the host immunocompetence irrespectively of the virological response to HAART.