Abstract

Background

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is currently classified into 8 genotypes and 86 subtypes. The objective of this study was to characterize novel HCV subtypes and to investigate the impact of subtypes on treatment outcome.

Methods

Full-genome sequencing was performed on HCV plasma samples with <85% sequence homology of NS3, NS5A, and/or NS5B to HCV genotype (GT) 1–8 reference strains.

Results

A total of 14 653 patients with GT1–6 HCV infection were enrolled in clinical studies of sofosbuvir-based regimens. For the majority of the patients, a specific subtype could be assigned based on a close genetic relationship to previously described subtypes. However, for 19 patients, novel subtypes were identified with <85% homology compared with previously described subtypes. These novel subtypes had the following genotypes: 9 in GT2, 5 in GT4, 2 in GT6, and 1 each in GT1, GT3, and GT5. Despite the presence of polymorphisms at resistance-associated substitution positions, 18 of the 19 patients treated with sofosbuvir-containing therapy achieved SVR12.

Conclusions

Nineteen novel HCV subtypes were identified, suggesting an even greater genetic diversity of HCV subtypes than previously recognized.

Details

Title
Identification of 19 Novel Hepatitis C Virus Subtypes—Further Expanding HCV Classification
Author
Hedskog, Charlotte 1 ; Parhy, Bandita 1 ; Chang, Silvia 1 ; Zeuzem, Stefan 2 ; Moreno, Christophe 3 ; Shafran, Stephen D 4 ; Borgia, Sergio M 5 ; Asselah, Tarik 6 ; Alric, Laurent 7 ; Abergel, Armand 8 ; Chen, Jyh-Jou 9 ; Collier, Jane 10 ; Kapoor, Dharmesh 11 ; Hyland, Robert H 1 ; Simmonds, Peter 12 ; Mo, Hongmei 1 ; Svarovskaia, Evguenia S 1 

 Gilead Sciences Inc, Foster City, California 
 Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany 
 CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium 
 University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 
 William Osler Health System, Brampton, Ontario, Canada 
 INSERM UMR 1149, AP-HP Hôpital Beaujon, Université Paris Diderot and Centre de Recherche sur l’Inflammation, Clichy, France 
 Service de Médecine Interne, Toulouse Cedex, France 
 CHU Estaing, Clermont Ferrand, France 
 Chi Mei Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan 
10  John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK 
11  Global Hospitals Group, Hyderabad, India 
12  Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Mar 2019
Publisher
Oxford University Press
e-ISSN
23288957
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3171010594
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.