Preliminary Study of Hepatitis C Viral Quasispecies in NS2 Region in Patients wiUl Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Abstract: To explore the genetic variation of nonstmetural(NS)2 region and its gene structural characteristics in hepatitis C vims quasispecies,NS2 genes ofHCV from a HCV as)~nptomatie~[Tier and apatien twith ab. nomud ALT level tteile amphfied by RT-nested-PCR respectively and cloned into T Yector.5 positive clones form each of them were selected~ domly for sequencing.Eve~-clone WaS unique in nuclectide sequence and amino acid sequence.A 0Bt all the NS2 gene clones from the asymptomatic carrier had complete ORF ex。ept OIle done had a stop codon at 835aain HCV polypmtein.Butwhenit ean3~tothepatientwith abnorm al ALT level,3 clones of them had stop cadom.at 835aa and 1 clone had a stop ced on at 887aa in polypretein. 0nly 1 clone had complete ORF.Comparing this ORF with the s~ ence of the as)~lptomatic carrier,most of the~aino acid changes were confined to the N-termlnai.Simulating the so。ondarv strucRu~s of Ns2 proteins with intact openreadingframe demomUated thatthe structure ofthe HCV patientwith abnormalA levelwas similart0 the dominant structure ofthe asymptomatic carrier.It could beseenfrom thetwopatientswith HCV infection thatHepatitis C viral quasispeciesin NS2 r 0nhadan obvious diversity between HCv as)~lptoraatic p~riier and HCV patient with abnomaal A leve1.The diversity suggested that the stale of HCV qua~species in NS2 region WSSlikelyto correlatewith the progression ofliver diseas