title: [Serological character of hepatitis E virus mutants].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  64 sera with serologically negative nonA-E were tested for HEV RNA and their serological characteristics were studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  HEV RNA was tested by a reverse transcriptase PCR(RT-PCR) and the positive PCR products were cloned and sequenced. Of 15 patients positive for HEV RNA, 6 were followed up and tested for anti-HEV.
  
  
  RESULTS
  15 of them(23.4%) were HEV RNA positive. 9 of the 15 HEV sequences have 95% homology and the remaining 6 have only 80% homology as compared with the Chinese HEV strain at the nucleotide level. Of 15 patients positive for HEV RNA, 6 were followed up. 3 of 4 patients infected with typical HEV had anti-HEV seroconversion 1 month after infection and 2 patients infected with HEV mutants were persistently negative for anti-HEV 1 or 3 months after infection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Commercial anti-HEV EIA Kit can not detect HEV mutants.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, Beijing.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral