Mylopoulou Theodora, Papadopoulos Vasileios, Kassela Katerina, Karakasiliotis Ioannis, Souvalidou Fani, Mimidis Panagiotis, Veletza Stavroula, Mavromara Penelope, Mimidis Konstantinos
First Department of Internal Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis (Theodora Mylopoulou, Konstantinos Mimidis), Greece.
ENARGEIA Medical Ltd., Xanthi (Vasileios Papadopoulos), Greece.
Ann Gastroenterol. 2018 Sep-Oct;31(5):593-597. doi: 10.20524/aog.2018.0290. Epub 2018 Jul 13.
It has been suggested that hepatitis C virus (HCV) core+1 protein plays a crucial role in the viral life cycle, potentially affecting liver cirrhosis and the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.
To investigate its relationship with the outcome of HCV standard combination therapy with peginterferon-α plus ribavirin, we screened 139 consecutive HCV patients (119 with chronic HCV infection and 20 who spontaneously cleared HCV) for the presence of anti-core+1 antibodies (Abs). In addition, liver fibrosis was determined by FibroScan in all but one patients.
Twenty-nine patients were cirrhotic (stiffness >12.5 kPa, F4 METAVIR), all of them with mild liver cirrhosis (Child-Pugh score A). Eighty-six of 139 patients were treatment-experienced with standard combination therapy. Fifty of them had achieved a sustained virological response, while 36 were non-responders. The prevalence of anti-core+1 Abs in patients with chronic HCV infection was 22.69% (27/119 patients): 18% (9/50 patients) in responders and 36.11% (13/36 patients) in non-responders (P=0.050). Five (17.24%) of the 29 cirrhotic patients and 22 (24.72%) of the 89 non-cirrhotic patients were positive for anti-core+1 Abs (P=0.405). Furthermore, the presence of anti-core+1 Abs correlated with the poor response interleukin (IL) 28B genotype TT (P=0.040). No correlation between spontaneous clearance and anti-core+1 Abs was observed (P=0.088).
The presence of anti-core+1 Abs might be correlated with the poor response IL28B TT genotype and may negatively affect the outcome of standard combination treatments in HCV patients, suggesting that core+1 may play a biological role in the course of HCV infection.
有人提出丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）核心+1蛋白在病毒生命周期中起关键作用，可能影响肝硬化和肝细胞癌的发生发展。
为研究其与聚乙二醇干扰素-α联合利巴韦林的HCV标准联合治疗结果的关系，我们对139例连续的HCV患者（119例慢性HCV感染患者和20例自发清除HCV的患者）进行了抗核心+1抗体（Abs）检测。此外，除1例患者外，其余所有患者均通过FibroScan测定肝纤维化程度。
29例患者为肝硬化（硬度>12.5 kPa，F4 METAVIR），均为轻度肝硬化（Child-Pugh评分A）。139例患者中有86例接受过标准联合治疗。其中50例实现了持续病毒学应答，36例为无应答者。慢性HCV感染患者中抗核心+1 Abs的患病率为22.69%（27/119例患者）：应答者中为18%（9/50例患者），无应答者中为36.11%（13/36例患者）（P=0.050）。29例肝硬化患者中有5例（17.24%）抗核心+1 Abs呈阳性，89例非肝硬化患者中有22例（24.72%）抗核心+1 Abs呈阳性（P=0.405）。此外，抗核心+1 Abs的存在与白细胞介素（IL）28B基因型TT的应答不佳相关（P=0.040）。未观察到自发清除与抗核心+1 Abs之间的相关性（P=0.088）。
抗核心+1 Abs的存在可能与IL28B TT基因型的应答不佳相关，并可能对HCV患者标准联合治疗的结果产生负面影响，提示核心+1可能在HCV感染过程中发挥生物学作用。
