الفهرس 
Molecular studies on HCV structure in response to interferon therapy
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Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the major causes of chronic liver disease throughout the world. HCV genotype 4 is a common infection in Egypt patients. Persistence of HCV infection and poor susceptibility to treatment with pegylated-interferon alpha/ribavirin(peg-IFNa/RBV) might be contributed to mutations arising within HCV genome, which enable the virus to escape from host immune response.This study investigated the HCV genome structure in relation to treatment with peg-IFNa/RBV. Mutations in two sites of HCV genome; the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and the interferon sensitivity determining region (ISDR) of HCV genotype 4a were studied in details including DNA sequences and mutations in response to treatment. from 90 patient{u2019}s responders and non-responders to treatment with peg-IFN Ü /RBV were included in this study, and their clinical and biochemical characteristics were evaluated in response to treatment. Viral load of HCV RNA in plasma of patients was determined by a quantitative real{u2013}time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), before and after 48 weeks post treatment.Viral RNA was extracted from patient{u2019}s plasma and IRES and ISDR regions were amplified by RT-PCR using specific designed primers, and amplified regions were purified from the agarose gel. Nucleotide sequences of the IRES and ISDR were determined by direct sequencing, and the data obtained were aligned with published sequences in GenBank using BLAST program.Results have revealed that there are different mutations in the studied sequences in both ISDR and IRES regions.The predicted amino acids sequences in the ISDR region showed a significant differences ranging from one up to more than 8 mutations in the analyzed sequences. In addition DNA sequences of the ISDR showed different sequences in the analyzed samples. Although there was a significant difference between sequences of HCV RNA isolated from individuals but as a responders and non-responders, these data was not able to give an absolute answer whether response to interferon therapy is directly/relates to the structure of the HCV genome