Selection of hepatitis C virus resistant to ribavirin

Background Given the side effects associated with intravenous injections of interferon, an interferon-free regimen for the treatment of HCV infections is highly desirable. Recently published clinical studies show that interferon-free combination therapies containing ribavirin are efficacious, suggesting that an interferon-free therapy could be adopted in the near future. Therefore, understanding HCV resistance to ribavirin could be of major importance. In an approach to understand the effect of ribavirin on HCV replication and HCV resistance, we have selected a ribavirin resistant mutant of HCV in vitro.