Positive and negative strand of hepatitis C virus RNA sequences in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C: No correlation with viral genotypes 1b, 2a, and 2b
Journal
Journal of Medical Virology
Journal Volume
52
Journal Issue
3
Pages
270-274
Date Issued
1997
Author(s)
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has many genotypes which are closely associated with the severity of chronic hepatitis and the response to antiviral therapy. Although HCV is essentially hepatotropic, several lines of evidence suggest that this virus can infect peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in most patients with chronic HCV infection. However, the methods used previously to detect negative-strand HCV RNA have been questioned, and the PBMC tropism of different HCV genotypes remains unknown. A stringent method was used to investigate the prevalence of positive- and negative-strand HCV RNA in the PBMC of 106 patients with chronic hepatitis C and to analyze the influence of HCV genotype on the tropism of PBMC. HCV type 1b was the predominant strain in the patients. Positive-strand RNA in PBMC was detected in 83 (78%) and 40% had negative-strand RNA. The demographic and clinical features were comparable among different patients grouped by the replication status of HCV in the plasma and PBMC samples. In addition, there was no significant difference of PBMC tropism between type lb and non-1b HCV. In summary, HCV does indeed infect actively the PBMC of chronic hepatitis C patients and such infection is not correlated to the pathogenesis of liver cell damage. Moreover, the genotype is not associated specifically with PBMC tropism of HCV.
SDGs
Other Subjects
virus RNA; adult; aged; article; chronic hepatitis; female; genotype; hepatitis C; Hepatitis C virus; human; human cell; major clinical study; male; mononuclear cell; virus cell interaction; Hepatitis C virus
Publisher
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Type
journal article