Dynamic changes in HCV RNA levels and viral quasispecies in a patient with chronic hepatitis C after telaprevir-based treatment

In this case report, significant viral load reductions resulted in a genetic bottleneck leading to a reduction of variability in the hepatitis C viral population. We hypothesize that the reduction in viral heterogeneity potentially led to a reduced viral capacity to adapt to a host immune response leading to a transient loss of detectable HCV-RNA.