Computational analysis of resistance mutations in the hepatitis C virus

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) continues to be a public health problem worldwide. The development of drugs that target virus proteins such as NS5B, aims to provide more effective treatment in the future. These direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have demonstrated potent in vitro and in vivo effect; however, mutations have been described in HCV NS5B associated with resistance to DAA. Detecting mutations that are resistant to DAAs is important to prevent potential treatment failures. In this work, we developed a software to analyze mutations that are resistant to DAAs in NS5B gene of HCV. For this, we used the NS5B gene sequence isolate Con1 genotype 1b HCV, based on the main positions mutations associated with resistance to DAAs in vitro and in vivo described in the literature. The software algorithm allows computer analysis of possible changes in nucleotide and amino acid positions associated with resistance mutations to DAAs in NS5B of HCV

Keywords

• antivirals
• computational analysis
• hepatitis c virus
• ns5b