Natural Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Variants with Decreased Sensitivity to NS3·4A Protease Inhibitors in Treatment‐Naive Subjects

Abstract

High levels of naturally occurring protease inhibitor-resistant variants were uncommon (<1% each) in HCV treatment-naive patients. TVR/PR efficiently inhibited V36M and R109K variants and contributed partial antiviral activity against the R155K variant. As new HCV agents are evaluated in clinical trials, it will be important to monitor the effect of baseline variants on sensitivity.