Amino acid (aa) 70 substitution (R70Q/H) in the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1b has been shown to be one of the key factors in determining resistance for pegylated interferon-α plus ribavirin combination therapy (PEG-IFNα/RBV).
Our data revealed that there is a significant association between core protein mutations, particularly at position 70 (Arg70Gln), and treatment outcome in HCV subgenotype 4d patients.
However, regardless of the dominant strain, virological response types or the IL28B SNP genotypes, 70Q/H strains always exhibited the same response to treatment as the 70R strains and the percentage of HCV harboring the 70Q/H substitution did not change significantly during treatment.
Quantification of HCV-RNA by real-time PCR was performed for every patient, and gene polymorphism of BCL-2 (ala 43 Thr) was performed for all patients and controls.