The clinical and virological characteristics of HCV genotype 6 in Southern Taiwan

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus infection remains a main etiology of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma The accurate genotyping of HCV not only impact on the disease severity but also extra-hepatic outcomes Recent large cohort studies showed HCV genotype 6 infection is associated with higher risks of HCC development especially in cirrhotic Asian population The current commercial methods for HCV genotyping have limitations in identifying G1 and G6 The efficacy of current all oral direct antiviral agents reimbursed in Taiwan is unknown in some G6 population that was misclassified as G1 The aim of current study was to investigate the clinical and virological characteristics in HCV G6 virus infection in Southern Taiwan We found the seroprevelance of G6 in Southern Taiwan is 3 9% To evaluate the subtype distribution we designed a specific primer targeting the 5’UTR_Core_E1 region and subsequently identified the certain groups of G6 population could not be correctly genotyped by current commercial assays The majority of them are 6w and new 6g The new 6g strains showed recombination with 6b 6g and unclassified regions HCV PLUS assay showed high concordance with our sequencing results in 22 G6 samples 9 G6 patients received PrOD-based treatment and the SVR rate may be further evaluated Key words: HCV genotype subtypes phenogenetic analysis PrOD

Date of Award	2017 Sept 4
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ting-Tsung Chang (Supervisor)