Multigene tracking of quasispecies in viral persistence and clearance of hepatitis C virus

Figure 1 Analysis by SSCP+HDA of the E2 region (including the HVR1) of HCV in two HCV-positive IDUs. Clonotypes (groups of electrophoretically indistinguishable cloned cDNAs) were assigned sequential letter designations (a-p). As can be seen, the number of clonotypes in patient with clearance of viremia (PA) E did not differ significantly after antibody seroconversion compared with the pre-antibody seroconversion sample, and the clonotypes composition remained largely unchanged during the follow-up. In contrast, the number of clonotypes increased in patient with persistent viremia (PC) C, and the clonotypes composition showed constant evolution during the follow-up.