Shuang Wu, Tatsuo Kanda, Shingo Nakamoto, Osamu Yokosuka, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8677, Japan
Shuang Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Foreign Researcher of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), Tokyo 102-0083, Japan
Shingo Nakamoto, Department of Molecular Virology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8677, Japan
Fumio Imazeki, Safety and Health Organization, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
Author contributions: Wu S, Kanda T, Nakamoto S, Imazeki F and Yokosuka O contributed to this paper.
Supported by Grants from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS); Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan; and Grants from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan
Correspondence to: Tatsuo Kanda, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Chiba University, Graduate School of Medicine, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. kandat-cib@umin.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-43-2262086 Fax: +81-43-2262088
Received: September 14, 2013 Revised: November 8, 2013 Accepted: December 3, 2013 Published online: December 21, 2013 Processing time: 128 Days and 5.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: The standard of care for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was peginterferon plus ribavirin until the recent approval of telaprevir- and boceprevir-containing combination therapies. These HCV protease inhibitors occasionally cause HCV variants with resistance mutations. We reviewed the literature reports of resistance variants of HCV protease inhibitors in treatment-naïve patients with chronic HCV genotype 1, as well as our experience. Even in treatment-naïve patients with chronic HCV genotype 1, naturally occurring HCV protease inhibitor-resistance mutations exist in some cases. The combination of direct-acting antiviral agents against regions other than HCV NS3/4A could eradicate HCV with these resistance variants.
