Hepatitis C virus RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells: Relation with response to interferon treatment

✍ Scribed by Dr. Gloria Taliani; Maria Coneetta Badolato; Rosina Lecce; Giuseppina Poliandri; Alessandro Bozza; Franca Duca; Caterina Pasquazzi; Carlo Clementi; Caterina Furlan; Carlo De Bac

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 634 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890470105

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to investigate the presence of positive and negative hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA strands in serumand peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 20 patients with histologically proven HCV‐ related chronic liver disease. All patients completed a course of interferon (IFN) treatment (6 MU of IFN‐α2b three times a week for 24 weeks) and were followed‐up for 12 months after treatment was discontinued. Pre‐treatment, end‐treatment and 6‐month follow‐up serum and PBMC samples were examined. At enrollment, the positive strand of HCV‐RNA was detected in serum of 18 patients (90%), the negative strand in none. Positive‐stranded HCV‐RNA was detected in PBMC of 15 patients (75%), 13 of whom also had detectable levels of negative‐stranded HCV‐RNA in PBMC. By the end of the treatment, 12 patients (60%) were responders. The pre‐treatment HCV infection of PBMC, indicated by the presence of both RNA strands, was found in 8 (66.7%) responders compared to 5 (62.5%) non‐responders (P=n.s.). End‐treatment loss of PMBC HCV‐RNA correlated significantly with the response since it occurred in all responders compared to 2 non‐responders (P=0.02). However, end‐treatment‐negative serum and PBMC HCV‐RNA did not predict the occurrence of a sustained response, which was observed at month 12 in 5 of 12 responders (P= n.s.). On the other hand, the persistent absence of HCV RNA in serum and PBMC at the end of the 6‐month follow‐up was significantly associated with the occurrence of a sustained response (P<0.0001). © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.