Hepatitis G virus infection in patients with hepatitis C virus infection undergoing liver transplantation

Hepatitis G virus: What is the next step?

“…This has been reported previously in studies examining the role of HGV infection in cryptogenic cirrhosis 10 and HCV-related cirrhosis. 11,12,13 In the current study, de novo posttransplant HGV infection occurred in 59% in the cryptogenic group and was attributed to the high blood donor exposure in the peritransplant period. The presence of posttransplant hepatitis of unknown origin in this group was similar in HGV RNA-positive patients compared with HGV RNA-negative patients, suggesting that HGV is not responsible for cryptogenic liver disease after liver transplantation.…”

“…The suggestion of acceleration of liver disease in hepatitis B virus/ HGV co-infection is not supported in the literature for either hepatitis B virus or HCV infection. [11][12][13]18 Additional studies with evaluations of diseases associated with HGV mutants will be required before causative association between specific strains of HGV and fulminant liver failure can be determined. Based on the lack of association between HGV and liver disease, these studies would be predicted to be negative.…”

Hepatitis after liver transplantation: The role of the known and unknown viruses

“…This is consistent with other reports of HGV in transplant recipients. 6,7,10 Additionally, among the patients with chronic posttransplantation hepatitis of unknown cause (non-B, non-C), the histological disease was generally mild. However, 12% of these patients developed cirrhosis in as few as 37 months.…”

“…Polymerase chain reaction amplification was performed as previously described. 6 The research-based HGV branched DNA assay has a provisional limit of detection of approximately 50,000 Eq/mL, based on dilutions of a 700-nucleotide synthetic HGV RNA transcript. The methods were previously described.…”

A cross-sectional study of SEN virus in liver transplant recipients

“…2 Despite earlier enthusiasm that an agent(s) responsible for NANE hepatitis had been identified, neither hepatitis G (HGV)/GB virus-C nor TT virus (TTV) subsequently has been shown to result in significant liver disease in either the immunocompetent population [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] or among liver transplant recipients. [13][14][15][16][17] Recently, a novel DNA virus referred to as SEN virus (SEN V) has been identified and characterized. 18 This virus is reported to be an unenveloped linear structure with an average length of 3,900 nucleotides.…”