Yuki N, Hayashi N, Kasahara A, Hagiwara H, Ohkawa K, Fusamoto H, Kamada T
First Department of Medicine, Osaka University Medical School, Suita, Japan.
Hepatology. 1994 Jun;19(6):1360-5.
We assessed the correlation between hepatitis C virus replication and antibody responses toward hepatitis C virus core (C22-3), NS3 (C33C), NS4 (5-1-1 and C100-3) and NS5 proteins in 59 virus carriers. The concentration of serum hepatitis C virus RNA was determined by a competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. All 50 patients with high viremic levels of > or = 10(6) copies/mL had antibodies to C22-3 and C33C. Antibodies to 5-1-1, C100-3 and NS5 proteins were detected less frequently (p < 0.01) in 72% (36 of 50), 78% (39 of 50) and 84% (32 of 38) of such patients, respectively. As for the nine patients with low viremic levels of < 10(6) copies/mL, antibodies to C22-3, C33C, 5-1-1 and NS5 proteins were detected in only one patient (11%), which was significantly less than the frequency for highly viremic patients (p < 0.01). Antibody to C100-3 was also found less frequently in only four patients (44%) (p < 0.05). Thus, only four (44%) of the nine low viremic patients tested positive for any antibody compared with all 50 highly viremic patients (p < 0.01). These results indicate that highly viremic carriers can be detected by the presence of hepatitis C virus antibodies, but a considerable proportion of low viremic carriers may not show any serological evidence of hepatitis C virus infection.
我们评估了59名病毒携带者中丙型肝炎病毒复制与针对丙型肝炎病毒核心蛋白（C22 - 3）、NS3蛋白（C33C）、NS4蛋白（5 - 1 - 1和C100 - 3）以及NS5蛋白的抗体反应之间的相关性。血清丙型肝炎病毒RNA的浓度通过竞争性逆转录 - 聚合酶链反应测定。所有50名病毒血症水平高（≥10⁶拷贝/毫升）的患者均有针对C22 - 3和C33C的抗体。在这些患者中，针对5 - 1 - 1、C100 - 3和NS5蛋白的抗体检出频率较低（p < 0.01），分别为72%（50例中的36例）、78%（50例中的39例）和84%（38例中的32例）。至于9名病毒血症水平低（<10⁶拷贝/毫升）的患者，仅1名患者（11%）检测到针对C22 - 3、C33C、5 - 1 - 1和NS5蛋白的抗体，这显著低于病毒血症水平高的患者的频率（p < 0.01）。仅4名患者（44%）检测到针对C100 - 3的抗体（p < 0.05）。因此，与所有50名病毒血症水平高的患者相比，9名病毒血症水平低的患者中只有4名（44%）任何抗体检测呈阳性（p < 0.01）。这些结果表明，病毒血症水平高的携带者可通过丙型肝炎病毒抗体的存在来检测，但相当一部分病毒血症水平低的携带者可能没有丙型肝炎病毒感染的任何血清学证据。
