Tanaka E, Kiyosawa K, Matsumoto A, Kashiwakuma T, Hasegawa A, Mori H, Yanagihara O, Ohta Y
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan.
Hepatology. 1996 Jun;23(6):1330-3. doi: 10.1053/jhep.1996.v23.pm0008675147.
The quantitation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) viremia can be helpful in the diagnosis, therapy, and monitoring of patients with chronic hepatitis C. A sensitive and quantitative fluorescence enzyme immunoassay (FEIA) has recently been developed for assaying HCV core protein in serum. To assess the utility of measurements of serum HCV core protein during the course of treatment of chronic hepatitis C, we studied 27 patients who were treated with a single schedule of interferon alfa (IFN-alpha) (9 million units per dose for 24 weeks; total dose, 720 million units). Eleven of the 27 patients responded with clearance of HCV RNA and fall of aminotransferase to normal; 16 patients did not respond to treatment. Before therapy, HCV core antigen was detectable in 25 of the 27 patients (93%). The initial serum concentration of HCV core protein was significantly (P < .01) higher in the nonresponders versus the responders. Two weeks after initiating IFN-alpha therapy, HCV core protein was not detectable in any of the 11 responders, but was detected in 8 of 16 nonresponders (P < .01). All responders, but none of the nonresponders, remained negative for core protein after IFN-alpha therapy. The measurement of HCV core protein by FEIA may be useful for predicting the response to IFN-alpha and for monitoring its therapeutic efficacy.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）病毒血症的定量检测有助于慢性丙型肝炎患者的诊断、治疗及监测。最近已开发出一种灵敏的定量荧光酶免疫测定法（FEIA）用于检测血清中的HCV核心蛋白。为评估血清HCV核心蛋白检测在慢性丙型肝炎治疗过程中的作用，我们研究了27例接受单一疗程干扰素α（IFN-α）治疗的患者（每剂900万单位，共24周；总剂量7.2亿单位）。27例患者中有11例出现HCV RNA清除且转氨酶降至正常；16例患者治疗无效。治疗前，27例患者中有25例（93%）可检测到HCV核心抗原。无反应者的HCV核心蛋白初始血清浓度显著高于反应者（P <.01）。开始IFN-α治疗两周后，11例反应者中均未检测到HCV核心蛋白，但16例无反应者中有8例检测到（P <.01）。IFN-α治疗后，所有反应者的核心蛋白检测均为阴性，而无反应者均为阳性。通过FEIA检测HCV核心蛋白可能有助于预测对IFN-α的反应并监测其治疗效果。
