Ayadi Ahmad, Nafari Amir Hossein, Irani Shiva, Mohebbi Elham, Mohebbi Fahimeh, Sakhaee Fatemeh, Vaziri Farzam, Siadat Seyed Davar, Fateh Abolfazl
Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Network Science and Technology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
J Cell Biochem. 2019 Jul;120(7):11908-11914. doi: 10.1002/jcb.28472. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (OCI) is described as the presence of viral genome in both hepatocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) despite constant negative results on serum HCV RNA tests. Beta-thalassemia major (BTM) describes a group of inherited blood diseases. Patients with BTM require repeated blood transfusions, increasing the risk of exposure to infectious agents. We aimed to assess the prevalence of OCI in Iranian BTM patients and to identify the role of host factors in OCI positivity. A total of 181 BTM patients with HCV negative markers were selected. HCV RNA was tested in PBMCs using nested polymerase chain reaction assay. The positive samples were then genotyped via restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) and 5'-untranslated region sequencing. Six (3.3%) out of 181 BTM patients had viral HCV genomes in PBMC samples. Three (50.0%), two (33.3%), and one (16.7%) out of these six patients were infected with HCV-1b, HCV-1a, and HCV-3a, respectively. OCI positivity was significantly associated with the serum level of uric acid (P = 0.045) and ABO blood group (P = 0.032). Also, OCI patients had unfavorable IFNL3 rs12979860 TT, IFNL3 rs8099917 GG, IFNL3 rs12980275 GG, and IFNL4 ss469415590 ∆G/∆G genotypes. In conclusion, we indicated the low frequency of OCI in BTM patients. Nevertheless, more attention is warranted considering the importance of this infection. Also, further studies are necessary to determine the actual prevalence of OCI among BTM patients in Iran.
隐匿性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染（OCI）被描述为尽管血清HCV RNA检测结果持续为阴性，但在肝细胞和外周血单核细胞（PBMC）中均存在病毒基因组。重型β地中海贫血（BTM）是一组遗传性血液疾病。BTM患者需要反复输血，这增加了接触传染源的风险。我们旨在评估伊朗BTM患者中OCI的患病率，并确定宿主因素在OCI阳性中的作用。总共选择了181例HCV阴性标志物的BTM患者。使用巢式聚合酶链反应分析法检测PBMC中的HCV RNA。然后通过限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP）和5'-非翻译区测序对阳性样本进行基因分型。181例BTM患者中有6例（3.3%）的PBMC样本中存在病毒HCV基因组。这6例患者中分别有3例（50.0%）、2例（33.3%）和1例（16.7%）感染了HCV-1b、HCV-1a和HCV-3a。OCI阳性与尿酸血清水平（P = 0.045）和ABO血型（P = 0.032）显著相关。此外，OCI患者具有不利的IFNL3 rs12979860 TT、IFNL3 rs8099917 GG、IFNL3 rs12980275 GG和IFNL4 ss469415590 ∆G/∆G基因型。总之，我们指出BTM患者中OCI的发生率较低。然而，鉴于这种感染的重要性，仍需要更多关注。此外，有必要进行进一步研究以确定伊朗BTM患者中OCI的实际患病率。
