Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Biotechnology

Hepatitis C virus infection is the major cause of chronic hepatitis. The HCV genotype 4a is predominant in Egyptian patients that are not responding to the combined pegylated interferon-alpha /ribavirin therapy. The HCV IRES is a well-defined structure of about 341 nucleotides in its 5{u00B4}-untranslated region (UTR). This study was conducted on 46 Quantification of HCV-RNA in serum has been carried out at the beginning of treatment (W0) and at week12 (W12), patients 26 responders and 20 non-responders to Study HCV IRES Sequence and Secondary Structure and find the Correlation to pegylated Interferon\Ribavirin Responding Treatment in Egyptian patients. There was no statistically significant difference between Responders and Non-Responders regarding gender (P=0.1), age (p=0.3), AFP (p=0.4) and Albumin (p=0.1) while There was a significant increase for AST/ALT (p=0.002, p=0.001) respectively. HCV IRES RT-PCR and sequence analysis including genotyping, MSA and Sequence variation showed that 98% genotype 4a and there was no significant difference in sequence between Responders and Non-Responders patients in addition to the prediction of HCV IRES secondary structure MFE,Centroid revealed that there was no effect on IRES secondary structure and it is conserved among all HCV genotypes

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