Nagasaka A, Hige S, Matsushima T, Yoshida J, Sasaki Y, Tsunematsu I, Asaka M
Third Department of Internal Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
J Med Virol. 1997 Jun;52(2):190-4.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) appears to circulate in various forms such as native virion, immune complexes, and nucleocapsids during chronic infections. To determine the association of the physicochemical properties of HCV and its response to interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C, we examined pretreatment serum samples from 43 patients with HCV RNA who had received interferon therapy, using differential flotation centrifugation in a NaCl solution with a density of 1.063 g/ml. After centrifugation, the ratio of HCV RNA in the top and bottom fractions was determined by the polymerase chain reaction and expressed as T/B. Patients with a sustained response to IFN therapy were found to have higher T/B ratios than transient responders who relapsed after treatment (P < 0.01) and nonresponders (P < 0.01). With regards to HCV genotypes, patients with genotype 1b had higher T/B ratios in the sustained response group than in the nonsustained response groups (P = 0.001), but patients with genotype 2 had a similar distribution of T/B among the 3 response groups (not significant). These findings indicate that the physicochemical properties of HCV affect the effectiveness of interferon therapy, particularly in patients with genotype 1b.
在慢性感染期间，丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）似乎以多种形式传播，如天然病毒体、免疫复合物和核衣壳。为了确定HCV的物理化学性质与其在慢性丙型肝炎患者中对干扰素治疗反应的关联，我们使用密度为1.063 g/ml的NaCl溶液进行差速浮选离心，检测了43例接受干扰素治疗的HCV RNA患者的治疗前血清样本。离心后，通过聚合酶链反应测定顶部和底部组分中HCV RNA的比例，并表示为T/B。发现对IFN治疗有持续反应的患者的T/B比值高于治疗后复发的短暂反应者（P < 0.01）和无反应者（P < 0.01）。关于HCV基因型，1b型患者在持续反应组中的T/B比值高于非持续反应组（P = 0.001），但2型患者在3个反应组中的T/B分布相似（无显著性差异）。这些发现表明，HCV的物理化学性质会影响干扰素治疗的效果，尤其是在1b型患者中。
