Application of a high-resolution melting technique for the rapid detection of partial replacement of HCV-1b by HCV-1a after PEG-IFNα/RBV therapy

A modified method which can be used for the rapid screening of mutations in the protein kinase R-binding domain (PKR-BD) region and the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is described. This method is based on a high-resolution melting (HRM) technique used for genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms and allows the detection of single nucleotide substitutions in the DNA sequence by measuring its T(m). The modified method, in addition to precisely measuring the T(m), allows the recording of the melting curve of the investigated cDNA fragment, which can provide provisional information about the number of different quasi-species present in the sample. The HRM analysis of the amplified cDNAs encoding the PKR-BD and HVR1 allowed the detection of partial replacement of HCV-1b by HCV-1a subspecies in one of our patients, as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of pegylated interferon α/ribavirin (PEG-IFNα/RBV) therapy. The HRM technique has never been used for the rapid screening of sequence variations in these regions and may be used for a similar purpose in any viral genome.