HVR1 amplification was performed from pretreatment serum samples as described previously
[26 (link)]. In brief, viral RNA was extracted from 250 μl of serum by modified guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol/chlorophorm method, then subjected to reverse transcription at 37°C for 30 minutes using AccuScript High Fidelity Reverse Transcriptase (Agilent Technologies). A fragment of E2 region containing HVR1 was amplified in two-step PCR using FastStart High Fidelity Taq DNA Polymerase (Roche). Primers for the second round PCR contained tags recognized by GS Junior sequencing platform, standard 10-nucleotide multiplex identifiers (MID) and target-specific sequence.
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