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Hepatitis C virus genotyping of organ donor samples to aid in transplantation of HCV ‐positive organs
Author(s) -
Gentile Caren,
Van Deerlin Vivianna M.,
Goldberg David S.,
Reese Peter P.,
Hasz Richard D.,
Abt Peter,
Blumberg Emily,
Farooqi Midhat S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
clinical transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1399-0012
pISSN - 0902-0063
DOI - 10.1111/ctr.13172
Subject(s) - medicine , genotyping , genotype , hepatitis c virus , virology , transplantation , hepatitis c , viral load , hepacivirus , nucleic acid test , taqman , immunology , virus , polymerase chain reaction , biology , covid-19 , genetics , disease , gene , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Given the availability of new highly efficacious anti‐ HCV therapies, some clinicians have advocated for wider use of kidneys from hepatitis C virus‐positive ( HCV +) donors, including transplanting them into HCV ‐negative recipients. As treatment regimens for HCV are commonly guided by genotype, pretransplant HCV genotyping of tissue donors would be beneficial. To our knowledge, donor HCV genotyping has never been reported. We retrieved archived frozen plasma samples for 17 previous organ donors through a local organ procurement organization. We performed HCV genotyping using the eS ensor HCV g Direct Test (GenMark Diagnostics) and also by Sanger sequencing, for confirmation (Retrogen). In addition, viral loads were measured using the COBAS AmpliPrep/TaqMan system (Roche Diagnostics). We found that most of the samples (n = 14) were HCV Genotype 1a with the remainder being Genotype 2b (n = 1) or Genotype 3 (n = 2). All genotyping results were concordant with Sanger sequencing. The average HCV viral load in the sample group was ~ 1.6 million IU / mL (range: ~16 000 IU / mL to 7 million IU / mL ). We demonstrate that viral RNA from organ donor plasma can be successfully genotyped for HCV . This ability suggests that transplantation of HCV + kidneys into HCV ‐negative recipients, followed by genotype‐guided antiviral therapy, could be feasible.