N. Yuki et al., HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-REPLICATION AND ANTIBODY-RESPONSES TOWARD SPECIFIC HEPATITIS-C VIRUS PROTEINS, Hepatology, 19(6), 1994, pp. 1360-1365
We assessed the correlation between hepatitis C virus replication and
antibody responses toward hepatitis C virus core (C22-3), NS3 (C33C),
NS4 (5-1-1 and C100-3) and NS5 proteins in 59 virus carriers, The conc
entration of serum hepatitis C virus RNA was determined by a competiti
ve reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. All 50 patie
nts with high viremic levels of greater than or equal to 10(6) copies/
mL had antibodies to C22-3 and C33C. Antibodies to 5-1-1, C100-3 and N
S5 proteins were detected less frequently (p < 0.01) in 72% (36 of 50)
, 78% (39 of 50) and 84% (32 of 38) of such patients, respectively. As
for the nine patients with low viremic levels of < 10(6) copies/mL, a
ntibodies to C22-3, C33C, 5-1-1 and NS5 proteins were detected in only
one patient (11%), which was significantly less than the frequency fo
r highly viremic patients (p < 0.01). Antibody to C100-3 was also foun
d less frequently in only four patients (44%) (p < 0.05). Thus, only f
our (44%) of the nine low viremic patients tested positive for any ant
ibody compared with all 50 highly viremic patients (p < 0.01). These r
esults indicate that highly viremic carriers can be detected by the pr
esence of hepatitis C virus antibodies, but a considerable proportion
of low viremic carriers may not show any serological evidence of hepat
itis C virus infection.