Analysis of hepatitis C virus 5′ non-coding region for viral genotyping and the level of viral replication

Objective To investigate hepatitis C virus(HCV)genotyping and the serum HCV-RNA concentration in patients infected with different HCV genotypes and to provide information for evaluation of disease condition and anti-viral treatment efficacy. Methods A total of 60 anti-HCV positive serum samples were collected before antiviral treatment. RT-PCR was performed for the 5′ non-cording region and was followed by nucleotide sequencing for HCV genotyping. Meanwhile, serum HCV-RNA concentration was detected by quantitative PCR. SPSS21.0 and Graphpad Prism 5.0 software were used for data analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for comparison among multi-groups and the t-test was used for comparison between two groups. Results The frequencies of HCV genotypes 1b, 3a, 1a and 2a were 48.3% (29/60), 23.3% (14/60), 16.7% (10/60) and 10% (6/60), respectively. And, there is one subtype 2c was detected in this study. The mean serum viral concentration with standard deviation of HCV in genotype 1a, 1b, 2a, and 3 a were 5.46±1.19, 6.22±0.78, 5.47±0.65, and 5.38±0.98 log10 (IU/ml) respectively. Conclusions The infection rate of HCV genotype 1 was significantly higher than that of genotype 2 and 3 (P<0.01). The statistical analysis showed the serum HCV-RNA concentration in patients with subtype 1b was significantly higher than that of the subtype group 1 a, 2 a, and 3 a (P<0.05). The study of the relationship between HCV genotypes and the serum HCV-RNA concentration may contribute to anti-viral treatment prescription for hepatitis C patients. Key words: Hepatitis C Virus; 5′non-cording region; HCV genotyping; Serum HCV-RNA concentration