Department of Microbiology and Infectious Disease Center, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e23550. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023550. Epub 2011 Aug 12.
Development of HCV infection is typically followed by chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in most patients, while spontaneous HCV viral clearance (SVC) occurs in only a minority of subjects. Compared with the widespread application of HCV RNA testing by quantitative RT-PCR technique, HCV core antigen detection may be an alternative indicator in the diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infections and in monitoring the status of infectious individuals. However, the correlation and differences between these two indicators in HCV infection need more investigation, especially in patients coinfected by HIV-1. In this study, a total of 354 anti-HCV and/or anti-HIV serum positive residents from a village of central China were enrolled. Besides HCV-related hepatopathic variables including clinical status, ALT, AST, anti-HCV Abs, as well as the altered CD4+/CD8+ T cell counts, HCV core antigen and HCV viral load were also measured. The concentration of serum HCV core antigen was highly correlated with level of HCV RNA in CHC patients with or without HIV-1 coinfection. Of note, HCV core antigen concentration was negatively correlated with CD4+ T cell count, while no correlation was found between HCV RNA level and CD4+ T cell count. Our findings suggested that quantitative detection of plasma HCV core antigen may be an alternative indicator of HCV RNA qPCR assay when evaluating the association between HCV replication and host immune status in HCV/HIV-1 coinfected patients.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染的发展通常在大多数患者中随后会出现慢性丙型肝炎（CHC），而只有少数患者会自发清除 HCV 病毒（SVC）。与广泛应用 HCV RNA 检测的定量 RT-PCR 技术相比，HCV 核心抗原检测可能是诊断丙型肝炎病毒感染和监测感染个体状态的替代指标。然而，这两种指标在 HCV 感染中的相关性和差异需要更多的研究，特别是在 HIV-1 合并感染的患者中。在这项研究中，共纳入了来自中国中部一个村庄的 354 名抗 HCV 和/或抗 HIV 血清阳性居民。除了包括临床状态、ALT、AST、抗 HCV Abs 在内的与 HCV 相关的肝病变量，以及改变的 CD4+/CD8+T 细胞计数外，还检测了 HCV 核心抗原和 HCV 病毒载量。在合并 HIV-1 感染或不合并 HIV-1 感染的 CHC 患者中，血清 HCV 核心抗原浓度与 HCV RNA 水平高度相关。值得注意的是，HCV 核心抗原浓度与 CD4+T 细胞计数呈负相关，而 HCV RNA 水平与 CD4+T 细胞计数之间没有相关性。我们的研究结果表明，在评估 HCV/HIV-1 合并感染患者的 HCV 复制与宿主免疫状态之间的关系时，定量检测血浆 HCV 核心抗原可能是 HCV RNA qPCR 检测的替代指标。
