title: ELISA for anti-HCV antibody employing a shorter synthetic core region peptide.
abstract: A new ELISA for anti-HCV antibody was developed employing a shorter synthetic N-terminal peptide, 2-62aa, within the core region of 1-191aa. The basic performance of the assay was comparable to three other second-generation assays using longer HCV core antigens. To evaluate assay performance at the borderline level, 25 samples with indeterminate results were selected from 3000 routine serum samples. Only 5 of the 25 sera were found to be HCV-RNA-positive by a nested PCR assay and with apparent clinical evidence of HCV infection. The results of the new ELISA agreed with those of the PCR-RNA test in 23/25 (kappa statistics 0.75), whereas C22-3 of the RIBA II test using 2-120aa of the core agreed in 9/25 (0.09), the Abbott pHCV-34 EIA test using 1-150aa agreed in 10/25 (-0.12), and a neutralization inhibition assay for Abbott EIA II using 2-120aa agreed in 6/25 (0.02). These results indicate that the UBI CORE ELISA has greatly improved specificity and can be a useful indication of viremia in HCV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nakagiri
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ichihara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017931:DNA Primers; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D014758:Viral Core Proteins