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Improved diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C virus infection by detection of antibody to multiple epitopes: Confirmation by antibody to synthetic oligopeptides
Author(s) -
Brown D.,
Powell L.,
Morris A.,
Rassam S.,
Sherlock S.,
McIntyre N.,
Zuckerman A. J.,
Dusheiko G. M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.1890380303
Subject(s) - virology , epitope , oligopeptide , antibody , virus , hepatitis c virus , hepatitis a virus , biology , medicine , immunology , peptide , biochemistry
Serum samples from 226 patients covering a wide spectrum of liver disease were tested for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) using both first and second generation enzyme linked immunosorbent assays. Selected sera were also tested by peptide immunoassays, by the four‐antigen recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA II), and for viral genome by the polymerase chain reaction. Antibody to c100‐3 was detected in 61% of patients with chronic non‐A, non‐B (NANB) hepatitis and/or 46.5% with presumed NANB‐related cirrhosis by the first generation test. These figures increased to 77% and 58% when antibodies to recombinant structural and non‐structural HCV antigens were sought by the second generation assay. Supplemental testing against peptide Sp75 and Sp65isp67 confirmed that reactivity of sera by second generation assays was due to antibodies t o the additional structural and non‐structural antigens. Samples negative by the first generation assay were not confirmed by the supplemental assay using peptides Sp75 and Sp65/Sp67. HCV RNA was detected in 60% of the anti‐HCV positive sera tested, most of which were also RIBA II positive. Our findings confirm that the introduction of the structural and non‐structural antigens, especially the putativenucleocapsid protein, improves sensitivity of detection of antibodies to HCV, and facilitates diagnosis in patients with “cryptogenic” chronic hepatitis. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.