Evidence for a widespread effect of interferon lambda 4 on hepatitis C virus diversity

---

M Azim Ansari, Elihu Aranday-Cortes, Camilla LC Ip, Ana da Silva Filipe, Lau Siu Hin, Connor G G Bamford, David Bonsall, Amy Trebes, Paolo
Piazza, Vattipally Sreenu, Vanessa M Cowton, STOP-HCV Consortium, Emma Hudson, Rory Bowden, Paul Klenerman, Arvind H Patel, Graham R
Foster, William

 Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK
 MRC-University of Glasgow, Centre for Virus Research, Sir Michael Stoker Building, 464, Bearsden Road, Glasgow, G61 1QH, UK

: J Pharm Sci Emerg Drugs

Abstract

---

Type III interferons, and most notably IFN-λ4, are part of the early innate immune response to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Here we use paired genome-wide human and viral genetic data in 485 patients of Caucasian origin infected with HCV genotype 3a to explore the role of IFN-λ4 on HCV evolution during chronic infection. We show that IFN-λ4 has a widespread effect on viral diversity at the nucleotide and amino acid levels. Additionally, we characterized the role of the different forms of IFN-λ4 protein on viral diversity and viral load. These findings highlight the potential role of more than one mechanism responsible for IFN-λ4-mediated viral selection and clinical and biological outcomes.

Biography

---