title: Clearance of hepatitis C virus RNA from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of blood donors who spontaneously or therapeutically control their plasma viremia.
abstract: We determined whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA could be detected associated with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of seropositive blood donors who had spontaneously or therapeutically cleared their plasma viremia. Blood donor plasma viremia status was first determined with a highly sensitive transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) test performed in duplicate assays. PBMC from 69 aviremic and 56 viremic blood donors were then analyzed for the presence of HCV RNA with TMA adapted to detect viral RNA in PBMC and with a reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction assay. PBMC-associated HCV RNA was detected in none of the 69 aviremic donors, including all 6 subjects with a sustained viral response following antiviral therapy. PBMC-associated HCV RNA was detected in 43 of the 56 viremic donors. The 13 viremic donors with no detectable PBMC-associated HCV RNA all had very low viral loads (6 positive only in 1 of 2 duplicate plasma TMA assays, 6 with viral loads below 100 HCV RNA copies/mL, and 1 with a viremia of 2700 HCV RNA copies/mL). The absence of detectable PBMC HCV RNA detection in all 69 aviremic donors reported here contrasts with prior studies, possibly as a result of the higher sensitivity of the TMA assay used to test for plasma viremia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that PBMC are unlikely to serve as a long-lived reservoir of HCV in aviremic subjects.
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
authors.forename: Flavien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bernardin
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tobler
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: Joan Dunn
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Busch
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delwart
mesh_terms: D001782:Blood Donors; D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology*; D018579:Patient Selection; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014766:Viremia / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral