Detection of antibodies against the polymerase gene product in hepatitis B virus infection

✍ Scribed by Nobukazu Yuki; Norio Hayashi; Akinori Kasahara; Kazuhiro Katayama; Keiji Ueda; Hideyuki Fusamoto; Takenobu Kamada

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 715 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840120203

✦ Synopsis

We have studied antibodies (anti-pol antibody) against the polymerase gene product of hepatitis B virus by solid-phase enzyme immunoaseay using synthetic peptides coded for by this gene. Sera from six patients with acute hepatitis B, 112 chronic hepatitis B virus carriers and six healthy individuals with naturally acquired immunity to hepatitis B Virus were tested for anti-pol antibody. In acute hepatitis B virus infection, anti-pol antibody was detected in three of sixpatients. In chronic hepatitis B virus infection, antipol antsbody was detacted in 17 of 29 (59%), in 23 of 33 (70%) of cirrhotic patients and in 18 of 24 (75%) patients with cirrhosis complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma, compared with 4 of 19 (21%) asymptomatic carriers and 2 of 7 (29%) patients with chronic persistent hepatitis. Titers of anti-pol antibody were higher in cirrhotic patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma than in patients with chronic active hepatitis. The presence of anti-pol antibody, however, had no relationship with hepatitis B virusassociated DNA polymerase activities and other viral replicative markers. As for sera from six healthy individuals with naturally acquired immunity to hepatitis B virus, two (33%) were positive for anti-pol antibody. These results indicate that the immune response toward the polymerase gene product is induced during acute and chronic hepatitis B virus infection. In chronic hepatitis B virus infection, anti-pol antibody may serve as a new marker indicative of a long period of hepatitis B virus-induced hepatitis. (&PATOLOGY 1990;12:193-198.) The HBV genome is known to have four open reading frames termed S, C, P and X. Open reading frame P can code for a protein of approximately 90 kD and is believed to be the gene for HBV-associated DNA polymerase (HBV-DNAP) (1). To date, the mechanism of the expression of this gene has not been fully elucidated and