Journal Article

Identification of 19 Novel Hepatitis C Virus Subtypes—Further Expanding HCV Classification

Shafran, Stephen D, Chen, Jyh-Jou, Hyland, Robert H, Mo, Hongmei, Abergel, Armand, Svarovskaia, Evguenia S, Parhy, Bandita, Chang, Silvia, Borgia, Sergio M, Alric, Laurent, Moreno, Christophe, Simmonds, Peter, Kapoor, Dharmesh, Asselah, Tarik, Hedskog, Charlotte, Collier, Jane, Zeuzem, Stefan

2019

Overview

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

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Hepatitis C / Major / Whole genome sequencing