Abstract
Hepatitis C viruses in the blood of chronically infected patients are heterogeneous in density with the presence of lipoprotein associated viral particles of lower density than conventional virions. If low-density viral particles have been shown to be infectious in animal models it is currently not known whether these particles display the same infectivity for humans. In a case of sexually transmitted acute resolving infection, all isolated NS3 sequences from the acute-phase isolate clustered with a single sequence from the chronic carrier isolate, suggesting bottlenecking during transmission. To determine the density of the transmitted viruses, viral quasispecies from fractions with density below and above 1.055 g/ml were isolated and prepared from the plasma of the chronically infected sexual partner. Interestingly, the three closest sequences to the recipient consensus sequence were isolated from the low-density fraction. These data suggest that low-density viral particles are infectious for humans as they are for chimpanzees and that they can be transmitted during sexual intercourse. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 242-246 |
Journal | Journal of Medical Virology |
Volume | 80 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2008 |
Keywords
- Hepatitis C virus
- Infection
- Lipo-viro-particle
- Lipoprotein