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

Table 3 Characteristics of HCV quasispecies in pre-treatment isolates from SVR and NR patients

Region andpatient type	Geneticdistance	dS	dN	dN/dS	Num. amino acidmutations
NS5A
SVR (n = 99)	0.1027	0.3239	0.039	0.120	33.9
NR (n = 48)	0.0698	0.1216	0.025	0.206	29.8
ISDR
SVR (n = 99)	0.0834	0.3084	0.0295	0.096	1.3
NR (n = 48)	0.0765	0.2645	0.0271	0.102	1.9
PKRbd
SVR (n = 99)	0.0934	0.2934	0.0424	0.145	5.3
NR (n = 48)	0.0815	0.2694	0.0332	0.123	5.7
V3
SVR (n = 99)	0.1836	0.3264	0.1282	0.393	6.0
NR (n = 48)	0.1372	0.4482	0.0556	0.124	4.7

Values were calculated as described in methods; amino acids sequences were compared to HCV-J; n: number of PCR products analyzed; dS: frequency of synonymous substitutions per site; dN: frequency of non-synonymous substitutions per site; SV: Sustained Virological Responders; NR: Non-Responders to IFN-ribavirin therapy.