Hepatitis C virus intrinsic molecular determinants may contribute to the development of cholestatic hepatitis after liver transplantation Gambato, Martina and Gregori, Josep and Quer, Josep and Koutsoudakis, George and González, Patricia and Caro-Pérez, Noelia and García-Cehic, Damir and García-González, Neris and González-Candelas, Fernando and Esteban, Juan Ignacio and Crespo, Gonzalo and Navasa, Miquel and Forns, Xavier and Pérez-del-Pulgar, Sofía,, 100, 63-68 (2019), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001175, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-1317, abstract= Cholestatic hepatitis C (CHC) is a severe form of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection recurrence that leads to high graft loss rates early after liver transplantation (LT). To investigate the pathogenic mechanisms of CHC, we analysed HCV quasispecies in CHC patients compared to a control group (mild hepatitis C recurrence) by deep pyrosequencing. At the time of LT, NS5B quasispecies complexity was similar between the two groups but, after LT, it decreased more sharply in CHC patients than in the control group. Interestingly, the major variant before LT propagated efficiently and remained as the dominant sequence after LT in 62 % of CHC patients versus 11 % of controls (P=0.031). Sequence analysis of the complete non-structural region in a limited number of patients revealed a potential 12 aa signature specific to the CHC group. These data suggest that intrinsic molecular determinants in the circulating HCV quasispecies may provide a fitness advantage, contributing to the development of CHC., language=, type=