Naturally occurring HCV resistance to telaprevir and boceprevir in previous paid blood donors with HCV/HIV-1 co-infection

BAO Yi; TIAN Di; ZHENG Ying-ying; XI Hong-li; LIU Dan; YU Min; XU Xiao-yuan

Abstract：Objective To analyze naturally occurring HCV resistance to telaprevir and boceprevir in previous paid blood donors with HCV/HIV-1 co-infection, and provide basic data for drug monitoring and antiviral therapy for HCV. Methods Plasma sam-ples were collected from previous paid blood donors with HIV-1 infection, and HCV antibodies were detected. The HCV NS3/4A region was amplified using nested PCR, and drug resistance analysis was made by calculating resistance rate and assessing the prevalence of resistant strains. Results A total of 70 (46.67%) fragments containing HCV NS3/4A region were successfully ampli-fied from 150 samples. Drug resistance-related mutations were detected in 4 (5.71%) patients, resistance to boceprevir in 2 patients (2.86%), with the resistance loci of R117H and A156V, and resistance to telaprevir in 2 (2.86%) patients, with the resistance loci of R117H and A156V; possible resistance to telaprevir was found in 2 (2.86%) patients, with the resistance locus of T54S. Previously reported resistance loci, such as V36A/M/L/C, Q41H/R, F43C/S, T54A, V55A, Q80R, R109K, S138C, R155G/I/K/M/T/Q/S, A156S/T, D168A/E/G/H, V170A/T/I, N174G/S and L175M, were not detected. I35V, A40T, R62K, I64L, V71I, S66G, S91A and T42S exhi-bited a high replacement rate of over 90%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that drug resistance loci were scatteredly distributed in the phylogeny tree, and no aggregation was detected. Conclusions HCV resistance to telaprevir and boceprevir occurs naturally in previ-ous paid blood donors with HCV/HIV-1 co-infection, with the resistance rates of 5.71% and 2.86%, respectively. Other loci exhibit high mutation rates, but no correlation with drug resistance is found. Moreover, no correlation is found among the resistant strains.