Clinical application of hepatitis C virus core protein in early diagnosis of acute hepatitis C

Abstract

A fluorescence enzyme immunoassay (FEIA) for the quantitative measurement of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein has recently been developed. In this study, we studied the clinical usefulness of this measurement in patients with acute hepatitis C. Eighteen patients with post-transfusion acute hepatitis C were enrolled in the study; 5 patients showed resolution of hepatitis with disappearance of HCV viremia, while the remaining 13 patients did not. A second generation HCV antibody, HCV RNA, and HCV core protein were measured in serial serum samples taken within 1 month of the onset of acute hepatitis and 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after onset. Within the first month after disease onset, the positivity rates of HCV RNA (100%; P = 0.0014) and HCV core protein (89%; P = 0.0300) were both significantly higher than that of HCV antibody (56%). Six months after disease onset, the positivity rate of HCV antibody had increased, to 100%, and the positivity rates of HCV RNA and HCV core protein began to decrease. HCV core protein levels did not differ between patients with resolved and unresolved disease in the first month after disease onset. These findings indicate that FEIA, a simple assay, for the measurement of HCV core protein was useful for the early diagnosis of acute hepatitis C.

Detection of Hepatitis C Core Antigen in the Antibody Negative ‘Window’ Phase of Hepatitis C Infection

“…In this study, HCV core antigen was detected in the vast majority of preseroconversion specimens containing HCV RNA. These results correlate with previous reports of the presence of HCV antigen in RNA–positive specimens from patients with acute and chronic HCV infection [9, 10, 11, 12]and support a recent report of the presence of HCV antigen during the early, RNA–positive phase of anti–HCV seroconversion [13]. The results reported here also indicate that HCV core antigen appears substantially earlier than HCV antibody during the early phase of HCV infection and contemporaneously with HCV RNA in most seroconversion cases.…”

“…Recent reports have suggested that it is possible to identify HCV core antigen in sera derived from individuals infected with HCV that contain HCV RNA [9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. These studies have generally been carried out using antibody–positive specimens derived from chronic HCV infection and have utilized specimen pretreatment in order to detect HCV core antigen.…”

Sensitive Enzyme Immunoassay for Hepatitis B Virus Core-Related Antigens and Their Correlation to Virus Load

“…Therefore, HBsAg cannot be used as virus load marker. Measurement of the HCV core antigen after specimen pretreatment has been reported useful for the diagnosis and monitoring of hepatitis C (13,15,19,21,28,30). We previously developed a highly sensitive EIA for HCV core antigen (1,29).…”

New Enzyme Immunoassay for Detection of Hepatitis B Virus Core Antigen (HBcAg) and Relation between Levels of HBcAg and HBV DNA

“…Measurement of the HCV core antigen after specimen pretreatment has been reported as useful for diagnosing and monitoring hepatitis C (12,15,18,26). A highly sensitive EIA was previously developed for the HCV core antigen (1,2,27) in which the HCV core antigen was released from the virion by SDS pretreatment prior to EIA detection.…”