Detection of three types of hepatitis C virus in blood donors: investigation of type‐specific differences in serologic reactivity and rate of alanine aminotransferase abnormalities

Abstract

The serologic reactivity and epidemiology associated with different hepatitis C virus (HCV) variants were investigated in a cohort of 113 anti-HCV-positive donors. In Scotland, HCV type 1 accounted for one-half of all infections; 40 percent of subjects were infected with HCV type 3, and the remainder were infected with type 2. Reactivity with the NS-4-encoded antigens in the first-generation anti-c100 assay was absent in 68 percent of donors infected with types 2 and 3, as compared with 10 percent for those infected with type 1. Even when combined with surrogate marker testing, first-generation tests would have failed to detect 12 percent of HCV-infected blood donors. The age distribution, incidence of past infection with hepatitis B virus, and reported risk factors were similar in donors infected with types 1 and 3 (mean ages were 31.9 and 29.9; 18 and 17.5% were positive for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen; and 47 and 48% had past intravenous drug abuse). However, the distributions of alanine aminotransferase levels were significantly different in those infected with type 3 (abnormally raised in 83%) and those infected with type 1 (55% abnormal alanine aminotransferase; p < 0.05) or type 2 (60%; p < 0.01) and those who were nonviremic (8%; p < 0.0001). These data suggest that HCV type 1 is the most common HCV infection in blood donors and that infection with HCV type 3 may be associated with more severe liver disease, because of more recent infection or because of a greater inherent pathogenicity of type 3 variants.

Survey of major genotypes and subtypes of hepatitis C virus using RFLP of sequences amplified from the 5' non-coding region

“…Previous work has demonstrated that all six currently defined major genotypes of HCV (Simmonds et al, 1993a;Bukh et al, 1993) can be distinguished on the basis of RFLP analysis of RT-PCR products derived from the 5'NCR (Nakao et al, 1991;McOmish et al, 1993McOmish et al, , 1994Simmonds et al, 1994b). In one previous study, amplified DNA is cleaved with HaeIII-RsaI in one reaction and with MvaI-HinfI in a second, and the virus genotype is deduced by the combination of electropherotypes produced .…”

Evolving Trends in the Hepatitis C Virus Molecular Epidemiology Studies: From the Viral Sequences to the Human Genome

“…Thus, IDUs are considered to be the main risk group for HCV infection and act as a reservoir for this bloodborne virus. Several reports have demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between HCV genotype 3, the injecting drug abuse, and a younger age of infection [45][46][47][48][49]. Moreover, by comparing patients infected with genotype 3 and those infected with other genotypes, numerous groups have revealed an association between this genotype and hepatic steatosis [50][51][52][53][54][55], and a severe histopathological manifestation of CHC which can improve after achieving SVR with the antiviral treatment [56][57][58].…”

Hepatitis C virus population dynamics in human lymphocytes and hepatocytes infected in vitro.

“…To overcome this problem, we used restriction enzyme digestion analysis to detect sequence variations in HCV RNA PCR products (Kato et al, 1991 ;McOmish et al, 1993 ;Nakao et al, 1991). On the basis of the nucleotide sequence data of more than 200 HVR1 cDNA clones derived from serum 1B-2 (Fig.…”