I think this question has no definite answer yet because the evidence is not enough. Our knowledge around the viral quasispecies is proportional to the power of tools and methods we have used to study the viral quasispecies. For instance the sensitivity of sanger sequencing for detection of a unique nucleotide sequence of virus is 20-30 percent that means that virus should comprises 20-30 percent of the viral population. The sensitivity of the next generation sequencing (NGS) is around 0.1-1 (0.1 is very optimistic!) percent which is limited by the error of the polymerase we use in the PCR amplification. As a result, with the updated tools and methods such as NGS just we can find a virus with a unique nucleotide sequence which comprises 0.1 percent (10E-4) of the background viral population (currently 0.1 percent is our limitation). Please note that when we use NGS, mostly we find more polymorphisms in the viral population in comparison to when we use sanger sequencing which shows that we are more successful in studying viral quasispecies using NGS and consequently, if we investigate with more powerful tools, we would find a wider population of the virus.
I read before that "HCV quasispecies " can affect the responsibility to interferon therapy.
Kindly see our manuscript published 4 years a go about HCV quasispecie and res ponce to treatment in Egyptian population and other published by USA group. About the proper method for detection of HCV quasispecie, you have to clone direct the c-DNA of HCV after revers transcription to over come the PCR amplification taq polymerase error OR you have to clone at least 15-20 different clone form each PCR amplification from each sample.
Dear Prof. Alavian,
Dear Dr. Zekri,
Is there any hypothesis or study to show the mechanism of difference in response by the HCV quasispecies?
Dear Heidar, I think the escape of new HCV can affect the response.
Due to the genomic structure of HCV which is unstable with rapidly mutate ;resulting in HCV quasispecies. This has two major effects; first :Difficult to response to Interferon Treatment ;Second: making it difficult to make a vaccine suitable to protect against infection with HCV.
It seems that the host factors and the genomic variability have the major role in rate of responsibility to interferon. We just know the iceberg of the history now.
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