Prevalence of Resistance-Associated Substitutions and Phylogenetic Analysis of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Russia.

OBJECTIVES Due to limited Hepatitis C sequence availability from patients in Russia, the relationship between subtypes and baseline resistance associated substitutions to direct antiretroviral treatment outcome is not fully understood. METHODS Deep sequencing of HCV NS3, NS5A and NS5B sequences was performed on plasma HCV samples from 412 DAA-naive patients from Russia. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to investigate sequence similarities between HCV stains from Russia, Asia, Europe and North America. Pretreatment HCV RAS was assessed with a 15% cutoff. RESULTS HCV GT1b and GT3a sequences in Russia were related to strains in Europe and Asia. GT1a and GT2a had a low prevalence in Russia. In GT1b, the prevalence of NS5A Y93H was lower in Russia (6%) compared with Asia (15%). The prevalence of NS5B L159F was similar between Russia and Europe (26-39%). GT3a RAS prevalence was similar between Russia and Asia, Europe and North America. The 2k/1b recombinant strain in Russia were related to strains of Europe. A higher prevalence of the NS5A RAS L31M (10%) was observed in 2k/1b sequences compared to GT1b (1-6%). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of RASs and the phylogenetic analysis showed similarities in HCV strains between Russia, Europe and North America. This information may be useful for HCV regimens in Russia.