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Celia Perales,1,2,* Qian Chen,1,2,* Maria Eugenia Soria,1 Josep Gregori,1–3 Damir Garcia-Cehic,1,2 Leonardo Nieto-Aponte,4 Lluis Castells,1,2 Arkaitz Imaz,5 Meritxell Llorens-Revull,1 Esteban Domingo,2,6 Maria Buti,1,2,7 Juan Ignacio Esteban,1,2,7 Francisco Rodriguez-Frias,2,4,7 Josep Quer1,2,7 1Liver Unit, Liver Disease Laboratory-Viral Hepatitis, Internal Medicine Department, Vall d’Hebron Institut of Research (VHIR)- Vall d’Hebron University Hospital(HUVH), 08035, Barcelona, Spain; 2Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd) del Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain; 3Roche Diagnostics SL, Sant Cugat del Vallès, 08174, Barcelona, Spain; 4Liver Pathology Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, HUVH, 08035, Barcelona, Spain; 5HIV and STD Unit, Infectious Diseases Department, Bellvitge University Hospital-Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institut (IDIBELL), Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907, Barcelona, Spain; 6Virology and Microbiology Department, Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM), Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain; 7Medicine Department. Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Controversy is ongoing about whether a minority mutant present at frequencies below 15% may be clinically relevant and should be considered to guide treatment. Methods: Resistance-associated substitution (RAS) studies were performed in patients before and at failure of antiviral treatments using Next-generation hepatitis C virus (HCV) sequencing (NGS). Results: We have found two patients with genotype 1a infection having RAS in 3.5%–7.1% of the viral population at baseline that were selected during ledipasvir + sofosbuvir treatment. Co-selection of RAS located in a region not directly affected by the antiviral treatment also occurred. This observation calls into question, the recommendations to guide RAS-based direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment only when RAS are present in >15% of the sequences generated. Conclusion: Our results suggests that RAS study should include all three HCV DAA target proteins and minority mutants should be considered as clinically relevant. Keywords: HCV, minority mutants, NGS, antiviral resistance

Abstract Background Acute liver injury (ALI) induced by paracetamol overdose is a well known cause of emergency hospital admission and death. However, there is debate regarding the risk of ALI after therapeutic dosages of the drug. The aim is to describe the characteristics of patients admitted to hospital with jaundice who had previous exposure to therapeutic doses of paracetamol. An assessment of the causality role of paracetamol was performed in each case. Methods Based on the evaluation of prospectively gathered cases of ALI with detailed clinical information, thirty-two cases of ALI in non-alcoholic patients exposed to therapeutic doses of paracetamol were identified. Two authors assessed all drug exposures by using the CIOMS/RUCAM scale. Each case was classified into one of five categories based on the causality score for paracetamol. Results In four cases the role of paracetamol was judged to be unrelated, in two unlikely, and these were excluded from evaluation. In seven of the remaining 26 cases, the RUCAM score associated with paracetamol was higher than that associated with other concomitant medications. The estimated incidence of ALI related to the use of paracetamol in therapeutic dosages was 0.4 per million inhabitants older than 15 years of age and per year (99%CI, 0.2-0.8) and of 10 per million paracetamol users-year (95% CI 4.3-19.4). Conclusions Our results indicate that paracetamol in therapeutic dosages may be considered in the causality assessment in non-alcoholic patients with liver injury, even if the estimated incidence of ALI related to paracetamol appears to be low.

Christoph Sarrazin,1 Francesco Castelli,2 Pietro Andreone,3 Maria Buti,4 Massimo Colombo,5 Stanislas Pol,6 Filipe Calinas,7 Massimo Puoti,8 Antonio Olveira,9 Mitchell Shiffman,10 Jerry O Stern,11 George Kukolj,12 Michael Roehrle,13 Stella Aslanyan,11 Qiqi Deng,11 Richard Vinisko,11 Federico J Mensa,11 David R Nelson,14 on behalf of the HCVerso1 and 2 study groups 1Department of Internal Medicine 1, JW Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany; 2Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University of Brescia, Brescia, 3Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Università di Bologna and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Policlinico Sant‘Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy; 4Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron and CIBERehd del Instituto Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain; 5Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy; 6University Paris Descartes, Department of Hepatology, Hospital Cochin, APHP and INSERM UMS-20, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; 7Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal; 8Department of Infectious Diseases, AO Ospedale Niguarda Cà Granda, Milan, Italy; 9Liver Unit, Hospital Universitario La Paz, CIBERehd, Madrid, Spain; 10Liver Institute of Virginia, Bon Secours Health System, Richmond, VA, USA; 11Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, CT, USA; 12Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd/Ltée, Burlington, ON, Canada; 13Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany; 14Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Abstract: The interferon-free combination of once-daily faldaprevir 120 mg, twice-daily deleobuvir 600 mg, and weight-based ribavirin was evaluated in two Phase III studies (HCVerso1, HCVerso2) in hepatitis C virus genotype-1b-infected, treatment-naïve patients, including those ineligible for peginterferon (HCVerso2). Patients without cirrhosis were randomized to 16 weeks (Arm 1; n=208 HCVerso1, n=213 HCVerso2) or 24 weeks (Arm 2; n=211 in both studies) of faldaprevir + deleobuvir + ribavirin. Patients with compensated cirrhosis received open-label faldaprevir + deleobuvir + ribavirin for 24 weeks (Arm 3; n=51, n=72). Primary endpoints were comparisons of adjusted sustained virologic response (SVR) rates with historical rates: 71% (HCVerso1) and 68% (HCVerso2). Adjusted SVR12 rates were significantly greater than historical controls for Arms 1 and 2 in HCVerso2 (76%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 71–81, P=0.002; 81%, 95% CI 76–86, P