Premium
Detection of specific antibodies to HCV‐ARF/CORE+1 protein in patients treated with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin
Author(s) -
Karamitros T.,
Kakkanas A.,
Katsoulidou A.,
Sypsa V.,
Dalagiorgou G.,
Mavromara P.,
Hatzakis A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2893.2011.01502.x
Subject(s) - ribavirin , virology , antibody , pegylated interferon , hepatitis c virus , hepatocellular carcinoma , medicine , interferon , hepatitis c , recombinant dna , virus , immunology , biology , gene , biochemistry
Summary. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause for chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. The HCV‐ARF/core+1 protein is an alternative product of HCV core‐encoding sequence of unknown biological function. Highly purified HCV core and ARF/core+1 recombinant proteins from HCV genotype 1a and HCV‐ARF/core+1 recombinant protein from HCV genotype 3a were expressed in Escherichia coli . Using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, we assessed the prevalence of anti‐ARF/core+1 antibodies in 90 chronic hepatitis C patients infected with HCV genotypes 1a/1b or 3a, treated with pegylated interferon (Peg‐IFN‐a‐2a) plus ribavirin. Samples derived from 92 healthy blood donors were used as negative controls. All HCV‐RNA‐positive serum samples reacted with core 1a antigen, while 15 (37.5%) of 40 and 14 (28%) of 50 patients infected with HCV‐1a/1b and HCV‐3a, respectively, were found to have anti‐ARF/core+1 antibodies into their serum before treatment initiation. These antibodies were persistently present during treatment follow‐up and linked to elevated levels of HCV‐RNA at baseline.