DETECTION OF HEPATITIS-G VIRUS-RNA IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATITIS-B, HEPATITIS-C, AND NON-A-E HEPATITIS BY RT-PCR USING MULTIPLE PRIMER SETS

Hepatitis G virus(HGV)/GB virus C(GBV-C) is a newly identified virus a ssociated with human hepatitis. The preliminary prevalence studies of HGV infection in Japan were entirely based on the detection of HGV RNA by RT-PCR. However, the selection of the different primer sets in suc h assay may influence sensitivity of the test because of the extensive genetic heterogeneity of HGV, and influence the estimation of the pre valence of HGV. To address this potential problem, we designed two pri mer sets from well conserved domains in the 5'NC and NS5 regions of HG V genome, and tested them together with the NS3-derived primer set in RT-PCR for their ability to detect HGV RNA in serial dilution of synth etic viral RNA templates. Subsequently, we used these three primer set s to detect HGV RNA in the sera of 371 Japanese patients with hepatiti s B, hepatitis C, and non-A-E hepatitis. The results indicated that th e primer set derived from the 5'NC region appeared to be most effectiv e in detecting HGV RNA. The results also showed that only two out of t he 126 patients (1.6%) with non-A-E hepatitis were positive for HGV RN A although the RNA were detected more frequently in patients with hepa titis B (2/38; 5.3%) and hepatitis C (17/207; 8.2%), suggesting that H GV is not a common causative agent for non-A-E hepatitis in Japan. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.