TT Virus Infection Does Not Affect the Clinical Profiles of Patients with Hepatitis B and C in Yanbian City, China

Abstract

China is an area of high endemicity for viral hepatitis, and the molecular epidemiological investigation of TT virus (TTV) infection is of interest. In the present study, we investigated the epidemiology, clinical significance and molecular characteristics of TTV infection in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C in Yanbian City, China. Serum samples obtained from 74 patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C who visited Yanbian Hospital, located in northeast China, were analyzed in this study. The study group included 22 cases of chronic hepatitis B (B-CH), 17 cases of liver cirrhosis B (B-LC), 7 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (B-HCC), 16 cases of chronic hepatitis C (C-CH), 11 cases of liver cirrhosis C (C-LC) and 1 case of hepatocellular carcinoma (C-HCC). Detection of TTV DNA was performed as described by Nishizawa et al. The second-round PCR products from 7 subjects were sequenced, followed by investigation of nucleotide homology and phylogenetic analysis. TTV DNA was present in 18.2, 5.9, 28.6, 6.3, 9.1 and 0% of the patients with B-CH, B-LC, B-HCC, C-CH, C-LC and C-HCC, respectively. The highest prevalence of TTV infection was seen in the groups aged 40–50 and over 60 years. There was no significant correlation between the presence of TTV DNA and the clinical parameters in patients with hepatitis B and C. The various isolates showed 97.9–100% with isolates reported previously from Japan and 98.4–100% with isolates reported previously from China. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the Yanbian isolates could be classified in the same group as the Japan and China isolates. We concluded that chronic coinfection with TTV did not affect the serological features of chronic hepatitis B and C in China, as found in Tokyo, Japan.

Molecular epidemiology and genotyping of TT virus isolated from Saudi blood donors and hepatitis patients

“…We are therefore in agreement with previous observations that TTV infection does not seem to be related to abnormal ALT levels, and ALT abnormality was mainly attributable to HCV, HBV or HGV and not TTV infection. 38 , 39 The presence or absence of serum TTV DNA does not seem to affect the clinical course of patients with chronic HBV or HCV infection and TTV viremia with any genotype was not associated with HBV, HCV or HGV infection and abnormal ALT levels. 40 , 41 …”

Incidence and clinical implication of TT virus in patients with hepatitis and its frequency in blood donors in India

“…It was found that TTV co-infection had little or no effect on severity of biochemical parameters of liver damage in hepatitis C patients. Zhao et al 14 and Moriyama et al 15 reported that TTV co-infection did not modify the serology or biochemical markers of chronic hepatitis B and C. However, few workers have reported increased severity of biochemical and histologic parameters of liver damage in hepatitis C patients co-infected with TTV. 16 In our study, TTV viraemia was associated with raised serum bilirubin, AST, ALT and alkaline phosphatase levels in only 1%, 2%, 4% and 1% healthy individuals respectively.…”

Isolation of Multiple TT Virus Genotypes from Spleen Biopsy Tissue from a Hodgkin's Disease Patient: Genome Reorganization and Diversity in the Hypervariable Region

“…TTV were originally isolated from a patient suffering from posttransfusion hepatitis (35), but a direct role in the pathogenesis of this disease or in hepatocellular carcinoma has not been established (31,32,46). Several studies have failed to demonstrate a direct association of TTV with lymphomas and myelomas (2,8,60).…”