Hepatitis B virus DNA in serum of ‘anti-HBc only’-positive healthy Lebanese blood donors: significance and possible implications

El-Zaatari, M.; Kazma, Hassan; Naboulsi-Majzoub, M.; Haidar, Muhammad; Ramlawi, F.; Mahfoud, Ziyad; Ramia, S.

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2007.04.010

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In the present study, prevalence of anti-HBcpositive, HBsAg-negative serological profile among Syrian blood donors was 10.32%, a comparable rate to those reported in Egyptian (10.3%) and Lebanese (11%) blood donors [9,10], but far different from those found in Saudi Arabia (20.8%) [11] and Western European countries such as Germany (1.4%) and Italy (4.8%) [12,13]. This enormous variation in anti-HBc prevalence reflects the differences in HBV endemicity among these countries [14].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Prevalence of "anti-HBc alone" among Syrian blood donors

Muselmani

Habbal

Monem

2014

J Infect Dev Ctries

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Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of "anti-HBc alone" among Syrian blood donors, highlighting the possibility of representing occult HBV infection. Methodology: Sera of 3,896 healthy blood donors were tested for both HBsAg and anti-HBc. HBsAg-negative, anti-HBc-positive samples were further tested for the antibodies to HBsAg (anti-HBs), and "anti-HBc alone" sera were tested for HBV DNA. Results: Of 3,830 HBsAg-negative donors, 63 were "anti-HBc alone" donors, five of whom were HBV DNA positive. Conclusions: Greater consideration should be given to the "anti-HBc alone" serological profile in blood screening, premarital testing, organ transplantation tests, and other HBV transmission-related procedures in Syria.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Prevalence of "anti-HBc alone" among Syrian blood donors

Muselmani

Habbal

Monem

2014

J Infect Dev Ctries

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“…When the prevalence was measured based on the nationality, 9.2% (n = 130/1406) of Syrian and 3.2% (184/5608) of Lebanese were anti-HBc positive, respectively. A similar prevalence (3.7%) was observed in Lebanese blood donors in 2005 -2006 by El-Zaatari et al (34). HBV infection in blood donors is often seen in non-Lebanese citizens, as 11.8% (n = 18/152) and 6.2% (n = 106/1700) of anti-HBc positive samples were HBsAg and anti-HBs positive, respectively, as compared to Lebanese with 1.6% (n = 3/184) and 2.6% (n = 148/5608) ( Table 2).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…A previous Lebanese study conducted in 2007 reported an OBI prevalence of 5.4% (n = 11/203), which is higher than what was observed in the current study. However, El-Zaatari et al detected the circulating viral DNA by nested PCR but failed to detect it by Amplicor HBV monitor test that had a lower sensitivity (400 genome copies/mL) than the current available commercial assays (34).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Infection Among Blood Donors in Beirut, Lebanon: Reconsider the Deferral Strategy of Anti-HBc Positive Blood Donors

et al. 2017

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Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains one of the major infectious threats to human health. Since the implementation of highly sensitive HBV nucleic acid testing, occult HBV infection (OBI) has been detected. Occult HBV infection is characterized by a positive HBV DNA test with undetectable HBsAg (Hepatits B surface antigen). The prevalence of OBI varies significantly between geographic areas, genotypes, and population depending on the sensitivity of the detection assays used.

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“…All samples had HBV-DNA levels below 400 copies/ml, and all were genotype D. Thus, HBV was present but below the detectable limit for the assay used. Hence, routine screening for anti-HBc may be required as an additional preventive measure for controlling transmission of HBV via blood transfusion (8). Fifth, "anti-HBc alone" may represent the suppression of HBV replication by HCV coinfection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Double-Antigen Sandwich Immunoassay for Human Hepatitis B Core Antibody

Yuan

Huang

et al. 2010

Clin Vaccine Immunol

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A novel diagnostic immunoassay testing procedure for hepatitis B virus core antibody (anti-HBc) using homogeneous purified full-length hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg) capsids obtained from Escherichia coli was compared with Abbott Architect anti-HBc chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA; indirect method) against a library of specimens. A monoclonal anti-HBc neutralization confirmatory assay was then used to determine the degree of discordance between specimens. The new assay was found to be superior in both sensitivity and specificity.Antibodies (anti-HBc) to hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg) are present in current and past HBV infections. Anti-HBc antibodies represent a long-term serological marker of HBV infection, initially appearing during the acute phase of the infection and generally persisting thereafter (16). Thus, as anti-HBc is a universal marker of HBV infection, routine blood donor screening for anti-HBc has been implemented in some countries with low endemicity. It is a cost-effective method of screening. Such screening procedures have resulted in a decrease in the risk of posttransfusion HBV infections (12). In some individuals, the only serological marker of HBV infection is the presence of anti-HBc antibodies (10, 24), and thus detection of "anti-HBcAg alone" could reflect unrecognized "occult" HBV infection and physicians should consider investigating such patients with HBV molecular tests (21). Additionally, isolated anti-HBc can be used as a marker to assess the risk of HBV reactivation in patients undergoing therapy that could result in immunosuppression or patients who are HIV positive (17) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive (25).With these uses in mind, having a more efficient and reliable assay for anti-HBc is desirable. Most current commercially available anti-HBc assays have poor sensitivity or specificity (2, 19) and can be attributed to the inferior performance of the competitive immunoassay, especially for detecting low-titer antiHBc-reactive samples. False-positive reactivity can partially be attributed to unspecific activation of premature B lymphocytes causing the production of IgM, IgA, or IgM-related molecules without previous exposure to HBV (18,19). The specificity of competitive assays for anti-HBc can be significantly improved by addition of mild reducing agents, but such modified procedures often lead to the loss of sensitivity, particularly for IgM anti-HBc (23). In this study, a novel immunoassay for anti-HBc based on the double-antigen sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method is compared with a commercial anti-HBc assay, the Architect chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA). MATERIALS AND METHODSExpression and purification of full-length rHBcAg in E. coli. Two full-length HBcAg genes were obtained by chemosynthesis: AB090269 (genotype D, named CpD) and AB014368 (genotype C, named CpC). The rare arginine codes in Escherichia coli (AGA and AGG) located in the HBcAg gene were changed to CGT. The two fragments were inse...

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Hepatitis B virus DNA in serum of ‘anti-HBc only’-positive healthy Lebanese blood donors: significance and possible implications

Cited by 28 publications

References 22 publications

Prevalence of "anti-HBc alone" among Syrian blood donors

Prevalence of "anti-HBc alone" among Syrian blood donors

Low Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Infection Among Blood Donors in Beirut, Lebanon: Reconsider the Deferral Strategy of Anti-HBc Positive Blood Donors

Novel Double-Antigen Sandwich Immunoassay for Human Hepatitis B Core Antibody

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