Significance of liver negative-strand HCV RNA quantitation in chronic hepatitis C.
OBJECTIVE
Liver negative-strand hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA is the most direct indicator of active viral replication but has only been examined in a few semiquantitative studies.


METHODS
Positive- and negative-strand HCV RNA in the right (R) and left (L) liver lobes was quantified by rTth-based strand-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction for 48 chronic hepatitis C patients.


RESULTS
Close correlations between lobes were seen for positive- and negative-strand amounts (r = 0.950; P < 0.001 and r = 0.920; P < 0.001, respectively). The ratio of negative to positive strands (median, 0.14 for R and 0.13 for L) varied by 2 log directly in relation to HCV replication assessed by liver negative strands but had no relation to liver positive strands and circulating HCV. Only negative-strand quantitation was inversely correlated with age (r = -0.322; P = 0.026 for R and r = -0.340; P = 0.018 for L), while liver tissues with hepatitis B virus DNA contained larger amounts of each strand. In 27 patients treated with enhanced interferon monotherapy, the amounts of liver negative strands (<4 log copies/100 ng RNA) were the only independent predictor of a sustained virologic response.


CONCLUSIONS
Negative-strand quantitation is uniform in the liver and bears distinct relevance to the disease.
Yuki
Nobukazu
N
Department of Gastroenterology, Osaka National Hospital, Hoenzaka 2-1-14, Chuo-ku, Osaka 540-0006, Japan. yuki@onh.go.jp
Matsumoto
Shinji
S
Tadokoro
Kenichi
K
Mochizuki
Kiyoshi
K
Kato
Michio
M
Yamaguchi
Toshikazu
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000502:physiology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics*
D012367:RNA, Viral