Table 2.
Changes within HVR1 and outside HVR1 in viral load, normalised entropy, genetic diversity and genetic distance in patients with chronic hepatitis C according to their response to pegylated α2a-interferon/ribavirin therapy
| Patient group | No. of patients | Time points | Interval mean weeks | Change in serum HCV RNA × 105 copy/ml | Change in Normalised Shannon Entropy (Nucleotides) | Change in Normalised Shannon Entropy (Amino Acids) | Change in genetic diversity (mean Hamming distance) | Change in genetic distance | |
| SVR | 6 | E vs B | 34 ± 10 | 3.56 ± 9.01† | 0.030 ± 0.297 | -0.026 ± 0.266 | -1.15 ± 4.56 | -0.005 ± 0.025 | |
| 4 | B vs w1 | 1 ± 0 | -17.21 ± 26.33† | -0.177 ± 0.329 | -0.111 ± 0.225* | -0.05 ± 4.14 | 0.002 ± 0.026 | ||
| 2 | B vs w2 | 2 ± 0 | -25.98 ± 30.95 | -0.001 ± 0.267 | -0.008 ± 0.257 | 1.10 ± 1.00 | -0.001 ± 0.004 | ||
| 2 | B vs W3/4 | 3.5 ± 0.5 | -39.47 ± 38.11 | -0.243 ± 0.064 | -0.178 ± 0.156 | -3.35 ± 1.85 | -0.027 ± 0.015 | ||
| HVR1 | |||||||||
| TF | 4 | E vs B | 24 ± 0 | 83.31 ± 92.20‡ | 0.147 ± 0.063 | 0.118 ± 0.141 | 8.75 ± 4.13 | 0.018 ± 0.032 | |
| 4 | B vs w1 | 1 ± 0 | -116.22 ± 125.37‡ | -0.126 ± 0.236 | -0.086 ± 0.146* | -7.63 ± 9.98 | -0.026 ± 0.036 | ||
| 2 | B vs W2/4 | 3 ± 1 | -49.94 ± 56.35 | -0.073 ± 0.268 | -0.049 ± 0.220 | -0.50 ± 3.70 | -0.001 ± 0.016 | ||
| 3 | B vs L | 5 ± 4 | -33.70 ± 48.92 | -0.336 ± 0.348 | -0.398 ± 0.172 | -15.60 ± 15.99 | -0.054 ± 0.056 | ||
| SVR | 6 | E vs B | 0.092 ± 0.232 | 0.024 ± 0.174 | 0.02 ± 0.77 | 0.002 ± 0.006 | |||
| 4 | B vs w1 | -0.104 ± 0.108 | -0.049 ± 0.142 | -0.45 ± 0.62 | -0.004 ± 0.005 | ||||
| 2 | B vs w2 | 0.127 ± 0.047 | -0.003 ± 0.054 | 0.05 ± 0.05 | 0.000 ± 0.001 | ||||
| 2 | B vs W3/4 | -0.071 ± 0.185 | -0.002 ± 0.026 | -1.35 ± 0.95 | -0.013 ± 0.010 | ||||
| Outside | |||||||||
| TF | 4 | E vs B | -0.089 ± 0.276 | -0.035 ± 0.223 | 0.18 ± 1.43 | -0.010 ± 0.018 | |||
| 4 | B vs w1 | 0.064 ± 0.274 | 0.009 ± 0.065 | 0.15 ± 0.43 | -0.005 ± 0.008 | ||||
| 2 | B vs W2/4 | 0.106 ± 0.239 | 0.032 ± 0.049 | 0.10 ± 0.10 | 0.001 ± 0.003 | ||||
| 3 | B vs L | -0.007 ± 0.109 | -0.049 ± 0.148 | 0.12 ± 0.48 | -0.007 ± 0.009 | ||||
SVR correspond to the sustained virological response patient group. TF correspond to the treatment failure group. The number of patients indicates the number of samples available for analysis at the corresponding time points. E represents the early time point, B the baseline or day 0 of treatment, W1–4 the week 1 to week 4 of treatment and L the sample taken after the end of treatment only available for analysis in the TF group. Negative values correspond to a reduction in HCV RNA level, normalized entropy at nucleotides or amino acids level, mean Hamming distance and genetic distance. The data represent mean ± SEM. The statistical significance of comparisons between time points and between the two groups of patients were analysed with non parametric Mann-Whitney U test. †, P = 0.01 for the change between time point E vs B and B vs W1 within the SVR group. ‡, P = 0.057 for the change between time point E vs B and B vs W1 within the TF group. *, P = 0.038 for the change at time point B vs W1 between the SVR and the TF group