HCV Sequence Variation Predicts Response to Therapy

Many hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients do not clear the virus after receiving pegylated interferon and ribavirin. We know that HCV genotype is a strong predictor of the likelihood of treatment success. Within a genotype, do additional viral factors play a role in treatment response? To find out, investigators in Missouri assessed whether a novel approach — “genome-wide covariation analysis” — could be used to predict therapy outcome.

The researchers determined the complete protein coding sequences for pretreatment isolates from 94 patients with genotype 1a or 1b HCV infection who received pegylated interferon and ribavirin in the Virahep-C clinical trial. They examined the sequences for pairs of amino acid positions that varied in co…