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An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a viral pathogen that causes chronic hepatitis, which can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Detection of HCV RNA is the standard method used to diagnose the disease and monitor antiviral treatment. A quantification assay for the HCV core antigen (HCVcAg) has...

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Autores principales: Hansoongnern, Payuda, Pratedrat, Pornpitra, Nilyanimit, Pornjarim, Wasitthankasem, Rujipat, Posuwan, Nawarat, Wanlapakorn, Nasamon, Kodchakorn, Kanchanok, Kongtawelert, Prachya, Pimsing, Napaporn, Poovorawan, Yong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10310030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37384719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287694
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author Hansoongnern, Payuda
Pratedrat, Pornpitra
Nilyanimit, Pornjarim
Wasitthankasem, Rujipat
Posuwan, Nawarat
Wanlapakorn, Nasamon
Kodchakorn, Kanchanok
Kongtawelert, Prachya
Pimsing, Napaporn
Poovorawan, Yong
author_facet Hansoongnern, Payuda
Pratedrat, Pornpitra
Nilyanimit, Pornjarim
Wasitthankasem, Rujipat
Posuwan, Nawarat
Wanlapakorn, Nasamon
Kodchakorn, Kanchanok
Kongtawelert, Prachya
Pimsing, Napaporn
Poovorawan, Yong
author_sort Hansoongnern, Payuda
collection PubMed
description Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a viral pathogen that causes chronic hepatitis, which can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Detection of HCV RNA is the standard method used to diagnose the disease and monitor antiviral treatment. A quantification assay for the HCV core antigen (HCVcAg) has been proposed as a simplified alternative to the HCV RNA test for predicting active HCV infection, with the aim of achieving the global goal of eliminating hepatitis. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between HCV RNA and HCVcAg, as well as the impact of amino acid sequence heterogeneity on HCVcAg quantification. Our findings demonstrated a strong positive correlation between HCV RNA and HCVcAg across all HCV genotypes (1a, 1b, 3a, and 6), with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.96 (p < 0.001). However, in some cases, samples with genotypes 3a and 6 exhibited lower HCVcAg levels than expected based on the corresponding HCV RNA values. Upon the core amino acid sequence alignment, it was observed that samples exhibiting low core antigen levels had an amino acid substitution at position 49, where threonine was replaced by either alanine or valine. Core mutation at this position may correlate with one of the epitope regions recognized by anti-HCV monoclonal antibodies. The present findings suggest that the utilization of HCVcAg as a standalone marker for HCV RNA might not provide adequate sensitivity for the detection of HCV infection, especially in cases where there are variations in the amino acid sequence of the core region and a low viral load of HCV RNA.
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spelling pubmed-103100302023-06-30 An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA Hansoongnern, Payuda Pratedrat, Pornpitra Nilyanimit, Pornjarim Wasitthankasem, Rujipat Posuwan, Nawarat Wanlapakorn, Nasamon Kodchakorn, Kanchanok Kongtawelert, Prachya Pimsing, Napaporn Poovorawan, Yong PLoS One Research Article Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a viral pathogen that causes chronic hepatitis, which can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Detection of HCV RNA is the standard method used to diagnose the disease and monitor antiviral treatment. A quantification assay for the HCV core antigen (HCVcAg) has been proposed as a simplified alternative to the HCV RNA test for predicting active HCV infection, with the aim of achieving the global goal of eliminating hepatitis. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between HCV RNA and HCVcAg, as well as the impact of amino acid sequence heterogeneity on HCVcAg quantification. Our findings demonstrated a strong positive correlation between HCV RNA and HCVcAg across all HCV genotypes (1a, 1b, 3a, and 6), with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.96 (p < 0.001). However, in some cases, samples with genotypes 3a and 6 exhibited lower HCVcAg levels than expected based on the corresponding HCV RNA values. Upon the core amino acid sequence alignment, it was observed that samples exhibiting low core antigen levels had an amino acid substitution at position 49, where threonine was replaced by either alanine or valine. Core mutation at this position may correlate with one of the epitope regions recognized by anti-HCV monoclonal antibodies. The present findings suggest that the utilization of HCVcAg as a standalone marker for HCV RNA might not provide adequate sensitivity for the detection of HCV infection, especially in cases where there are variations in the amino acid sequence of the core region and a low viral load of HCV RNA. Public Library of Science 2023-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10310030/ /pubmed/37384719 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287694 Text en © 2023 Hansoongnern et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hansoongnern, Payuda
Pratedrat, Pornpitra
Nilyanimit, Pornjarim
Wasitthankasem, Rujipat
Posuwan, Nawarat
Wanlapakorn, Nasamon
Kodchakorn, Kanchanok
Kongtawelert, Prachya
Pimsing, Napaporn
Poovorawan, Yong
An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title_full An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title_fullStr An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title_full_unstemmed An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title_short An amino acid substitution in HCV core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of HCV infection compared with HCV RNA
title_sort amino acid substitution in hcv core antigen limits its use as a reliable measure of hcv infection compared with hcv rna
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10310030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37384719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287694
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