Transmission of low-density hepatitis C viral particles during sexually transmitted acute resolving infection

✍ Scribed by Olivier Diaz; Maria Cubero; Mary Anne Trabaud; Josep Quer; Vinca Icard; Juan I. Esteban; Vincent Lotteau; Patrice André

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 130 KB
• Volume: 80
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.21037

✦ Synopsis

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. J. Med. Virol. 80:242–246, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.