Quasispecies evolution in NS5A region of hepatitis C virus genotype 1b during interferon or combined interferon-ribavirin therapy

Table 2 Clinical and virological characteristics of the 10 patients studied before and during treatment mean ± SD

Patient andtime of treatment	Sex	Age	Viral loadlog IU/mL	n	NT substitutions/mastersequence	AA substitutions/mastersequence	Genetic distance
SVR1-D0	F	48	2.00	15	4.5 ± 2.3	2.5 ± 1.4	0.0065 ± 0.0008
SVR2-D0	F	53	4.55	13	5.1 ± 3.6	3.3 ± 2.1	0.0070 ± 0.0011
SVR3-D0	M	43	4.71	8	10.3 ± 3.6	4.7 ± 1.9	0.0105 ± 0.0018
SVR4-D0	M	59	6.24	16	15.4 ± 8.0	7.5 ± 4.9	0.0172 ± 0.0022
SVR4-M3	-	-	1.61	13	3.6 ± 2.1	1.8 ± 1.0	0.0051 ± 0.0008
SVR5-D0	F	65	5.44	15	10.1 ± 6.6	4.9 ± 2.0	0.0171 ± 0.0016
SVR5-M3	-	-	2.77	17	6.4 ± 2.4	3.3 ± 1.6	0.0070 ± 0.0010
SVR6-D0	M	47	7.26	17	15.9 ± 10.5	8.5 ± 5.1	0.0192 ± 0.0022
SVR6-M3	-	-	2.18	6	4.0 ± 1.7	2.4 ± 1.3	0.0062 ± 0.0012
SVR7-D0	F	51	6.61	15	29.3 ± 8.5	7.3 ± 2.7	0.0294 ± 0.0029
SVR7-M3	-	-	5.42	15	12.6 ± 4.2	4.6 ± 2.2	0.0156 ± 0.0016
NR1-D0	M	35	5.13	17	15.2 ± 4.3	3.5 ± 1.9	0.0181 ± 0.0020
NR1-M3	-	-	5.24	9	15.3 ± 4.4	4.8 ± 1.7	0.0143 ± 0.0020
NR1-M6	-	-	2.83	4	4.5 ± 3.1	2.0 ± 3.4	0.0041 ± 0.0013
NR2-D0	F	50	5.90	17	15.6 ± 6.4	5.2 ± 2.9	0.0181 ± 0.0020
NR2-M3	-	-	5.87	12	9.5 ± 3.6	3.9 ± 1.8	0.0125 ± 0.0013
NR2-M6	-	-	5.77	10	10.3 ± 3.3	4.0 ± 2.2	0.0274 ± 0.0020
NR3-D0	F	44	5.63	14	10.9 ± 3.7	4.4 ± 2.2	0.0279 ± 0.0021
NR3-M3	-	-	5.79	11	11.1 ± 2.7	4.0 ± 2.8	0.0157 ± 0.0017
NR3-M6	-	-	5.00	12	10.8 ± 3.3	4.4 ± 2.0	0.0154 ± 0.0015

F: Female; M: Male; n: number of PCR products analyzed; D0: beginning of the treatment; M3: 3 mo of treatment; SVR: Sustained Virological Responders; NR: Non-Responders to IFN-ribavirin therapy.