SERIAL QUANTITATION OF SERUM CORE PROTEIN AND VIRAL-RNA OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS AFTER INTERFERON THERAPY - INCREASE IN VIRAL LOADS IN BIOCHEMICAL RESPONDERS

Objectives: Interferon (IFN) therapy is often ineffective in eradicati ng hepatitis C virus (HCV). Some patients show normal serum ALT levels for a long time after IFN therapy despite the presence of HCV. These patients are considered not virological responders but biochemical res ponders. We investigated the changes in the amount of HCV after IFN th erapy in biochemical responders. Methods: Nine biochemical responders and 11 nonresponders were studied. Serum HCV amount was measured by fl uorescence enzyme immunoassay for HCV core (pg/ml) and Amplicor HCV Mo nitor test for HCV RNA (logarithms of copy numbers per milliliter). Re sults: In biochemical responders, core protein and HCV RNA were increa sed significantly at 1 month after IFN therapy (291 +/- 191 pg/ml and 5.4 +/- 0.9, respectively; p < 0.05 for both) and at 1 yr (324 +/- 189 pg/ml and 5.6 +/- 0.7, respectively; p < 0.01 for both) compared with pretreatment values (122 +/- 114 pg/ml and 4.8 +/- 0.9, respectively) . The change ratios of core protein at 1 month and 6 months after ther apy to the pretreatment values were significantly higher in biochemica l responders (3.2 +/- 2.4 and 2.9 +/- 2.3, respectively) than in nonre sponders (0.9 +/- 0.7 and 1.1 +/- 0.8, respectively) (p < 0.05 for bot h). Similarly, the change ratios of HCV RNA at 1 month and 1 yr after IFN therapy were significantly higher in biochemical responders (9.9 /- 14.6 and 12.8 +/- 15.1) than in nonresponders (0.6 +/- 0.5 and 1.2 +/- 1.2) (p < 0.05 for both). Conclusions: HCV amount increased signif icantly after IFN therapy in biochemical responders, whereas it did no t change notably in nonresponders.