Antibodies against non-structural c100/3 and structural core antigen of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in hemodialysis patients

Abstract

Two groups of patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) maintenance were evaluated for their antibody response to non-structural c100/3 protein and structural core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Forty-six patients (Group 1) never presented liver abnormalities during HD treatment, while 52 patients (Group 2) had either current or prior liver enzyme elevations. Prevalence rates of 32.6% and 41.3% were found for anti-c100/3 and anti-HCV core antibodies, respectively, in patients with silent infections (Group 1). The rate of anti-c100/3 in patients of Group 2 was 71.15% and reached 86.5% for anti-HCV core antibodies. The recognition of anti-c100/3 and anti-core antibodies was significantly higher in Group 2 than in Group 1. A line immunoassay composed of structural and non-structural peptides was used as a confirmation assay. HBV infection, measured by the presence of anti-HBc antibodies, was observed in 39.8% of the patients. Six were HBsAg chronic carriers and 13 had naturally acquired anti-HBs antibodies. The duration of HD treatment was correlated with anti-HCV positivity. A high prevalence of 96.7% (Group 2) was found in patients who underwent more than 5 years of treatment. Our results suggest that anti-HCV core ELISA is more accurate for detecting HCV infection than anti-c100/3. Although the risk associated with the duration of HD treatment and blood transfusion was high, additional factors such as a significant non-transfusional spread of HCV seems to play a role as well. The identification of infective patients by more sensitive methods for HCV genome detection should help to control the transmission of HCV in the unit under study.

Soroprevalência do vírus da hepatite C na população em diálise de Goiânia, GO

“…Anticorpos anti-VHC foram detectados inicialmente pelo ensaio imunoenzimático (ELISA), de segunda geração, empregando-se uma mistura de antígenos recombinantes correspondentes às regiões: "core", NS3, NS5 do genoma do VHC (gentilmente cedidos pela Research Foundation for Microbial Disease of Osaka University, Japão), seguindo a técnica descrita por Yoshida 15 . As amostras reativas ao ELISA foram retestadas pelo "line imunoassay" (INNO-LIA VHC Ab, Innogenetics, Bélgica), o que permitiu a detecção diferencial de anticorpos para os peptídeos representantes das regiões: "core", NS4, NS5 do genoma do VHC.…”