Evolutionary analysis of hepatitis C virus gene sequences from 1953.

Reconstructing the transmission history of infectious diseases in the absence of medical or epidemiological records often relies on the evolutionary analysis of pathogen genetic sequences. The precision of evolutionary estimates of epidemic history can be increased by the inclusion of sequences derived from 'archived' samples that are genetically distinct from contemporary strains. Historical sequences are especially valuable for viral pathogens that circulated for many years before being formally identified, including HIV and the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

More severe parenchymal injury in chronic hepatitis C acquired by recent injection drug use.

Objective: Histologic liver injury is reported to be less severe in persons who acquire hepatitis C through injection drug use (IDU) than by blood transfusion. Because age correlates with histologic severity, it may be that differences between routes of acquisition reflect the younger age of most drug abusers. The early histopathologic changes of hepatitis C acquired through IDU are less defined, probably because of the lack of liver biopsy material from a cohort of patients not long after initial exposure.

Analysis of hepatitis C virus quasispecies transmission and evolution in patients infected through blood transfusion.

Background & Aims: Studies on hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispecies dynamics in the natural course of infection are rare owing to difficulties in obtaining samples from the early phase of infection.

Methods: We studied 15 patients from the Transfusion-Transmitted Viruses Study who seroconverted to anti-HCV after receiving infected blood. Follow-up serum samples were collected every 2-3 weeks for 6 months, at 10 months, and at 11-16 years.

Drift in the hypervariable region of the hepatitis C virus during 27 years in two patients.

Serial serum samples were obtained over a 27-year period from a hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patient and from a nurse who appeared to become infected by this patient. The hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) and 5'noncoding region (5'NCR) of the HCV genome were amplified from each serum sample by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned. In the first serum specimen from the patient and the first two serum specimens from the nurse, most of the 20 clones from each serum sample had one common sequence in the HVR1 gene.