Hepatitis C virus quasispecies in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of treatment naive chronically infected patients

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 45 treatment naive, HIV-negative, chronically hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients were analyzed for the presence of HCV RNA. Viral RNA was detected in 73% of the studied patients. Single-strand conformation polymorphism assays and sequence analysis of the HCV 5'untranslated regions amplified from RNA recovered from both Plasma and PBMCs suggested virus compartmentalization in 57.6% of patients studied. In summary, our study presents evidence that HCV RNA can be found in PBMCs of treatment naive chronically infected patients that are not immunocompromised or co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.

Keywords

compartmentalization, HCV, PBMC, NEGATIVE-STRAND RNA, IN-VITRO, EXTRAHEPATIC REPLICATION, HEMATOPOIETIC-CELLS, VIRAL SEQUENCES, HCV RNA, LIVER, PERSISTENCE, SERUM, VIVO

URI

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2893.2009.01112.x
https://repositorio.uc.cl/handle/11534/78306

Collections

Artículos de revistas

Full item page