Analysis of ribavirin mutagenicity in human hepatitis C virus infection.

ABSTRACT: The addition of ribavirin to alpha interferon therapy significantly increases response rates for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but ribavirin's antiviral mechanisms are unknown. Ribavirin has been suggested to have mutagenic potential in vitro that would lead to "error catastrophe," i.e., the generation of nonviable viral quasispecies due to the increment in the number of mutant genomes, which prevents the transmission of meaningful genetic information. We used extensive sequence-based analysis of two independent genomic regions in order to test in vivo the hypothesis that ribavirin administration accelerates the accumulation of mutations in the viral genome and that this acceleration occurs only when HCV replication is profoundly inhibited by coadministered alpha

SUBMITTER: Chevaliez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1933365 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature