HCV in Patients With Sustained Response Still Infective

[Htet Aung (DSMA)]

FRIDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Trace quantities of hepatitis C
virus (HCV) from patients with long-resolved chronic hepatitis C
infection may still be infective, according to a study published in
the May issue of Hepatology.

Sonya A. MacParland, Ph.D., of Memorial University in St. Johns,
Canada, and colleagues exposed naive lymphoid cells from healthy
donors who had no history of HCV exposure to plasma and/or
supernatants from nine patients who had achieved a sustained virologic
response for 24 to 72 months after treatment with either interferon-
alpha or interferon-alpha with ribavirin.

The researchers found that 11 of the 12 established cultures became
hepatitis C RNA-positive strand-reactive, and four of them expressed
the virus replicative strand as well. HCV from three of the nine
patients caused a productive in vitro infection.

"Our present findings reveal that HCV circulating in some individuals
with resolved hepatitis C is capable of inducing productive infection
in vitro at doses of 20 to 50 copies," the authors write. "This can be
interpreted as a strong indication of potential virus infectivity in
vivo. In future studies, it would be of interest to determine the
molecular mechanisms explaining why HCV circulating in some
individuals, but not in others, is infectious to T cells despite
comparable levels of virus being present."


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