title: Use of conserved sequences from hepatitis C virus for the detection of viral RNA in infected sera by polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: Three oligonucleotide primer combinations selected from the 5' noncoding, the nucleocapsid and the putative nonstructural regions of the hepatitis C virus genome were compared in a nested polymerase chain reaction assay with respect to sensitivity and specificity for the detection of viral RNA in chimpanzee-infected and human-infected sera. Sera from both the acute and the chronic phase of the infection were obtained from 13 animals inoculated with five different non-A, non-B hepatitis strains and from seven cardiac surgery patients who had non-A, non-B hepatitis develop after transfusion and who had been tested in parallel for the presence of hepatitis C virus RNA and anti-C 100-3. A total of 90% of the acute-phase and 100% of the chronic-phase sera tested positive for hepatitis C virus RNA when the 5' noncoding-derived or the nucleocapsid-derived combinations were used; only 58% and 56%, respectively, gave positive results with the putative nonstructural primers, whereas 33% and 71%, respectively, scored positive for C100-3. Thus polymerase chain reaction primers selected from either the highly conserved 5' noncoding or nucleocapsid-regions appear to provide the sensitivity and the specificity necessary to detect low levels of hepatitis C virus RNA in both chimpanzee-infected and human-infected sera.
authors.affiliation: New York Blood Center, Laboratory of Virology and Parasitology New York 10021.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Inchauspe
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zebedee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nasoff
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Prince
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D010957:Plasmids; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014766:Viremia / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012367:RNA, Viral