title: Detection of antibody to envelope (E2) antigen of hepatitis C virus.
abstract: One hundred and four clinical specimens from provincial public health laboratories were tested for antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope protein (anti-E2). To evaluate the effect of hypervariability of E2 region on anti-E2 assay, 49 recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) 3.0 positive samples were genotyped. All 49 genotyped samples were positive for anti-E2. Eight of 12 (67%) indeterminate, HCV RNA positive samples were anti-E2 reactive. Nine of 30 (30%) indeterminate, HCV RNA negative samples were also positive for anti-E2. Anti-E2 was detected in two of 13 (15%) RIBA-negative and enzyme immunoassays-positive samples. Although small number of samples were tested, the results showed that it may be possible to resolve indeterminate samples with the anti-E2 assay.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Viral Hepatitis, Bureau of Microbiology, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; Diagnostic Division, Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaudhary
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Burres