A Decline in Anti-Core+1 Antibody Titer Occurs in Successful Treatment of Patients Infected with Hepatitis C Virus

Hashempoor, Tayebeh and Alborzi, Amir Mohammad and Moayedi, Javad and Ajorloo, Mehdi and Bamdad, Taravat and Sharifi, Amir Houshang and Lavergne, Jean Pierre and Haj-sheykholeslami, Arghavan and Merat, Shahin (2018) A Decline in Anti-Core+1 Antibody Titer Occurs in Successful Treatment of Patients Infected with Hepatitis C Virus. JUNDISHAPUR JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY, 11 (2). ISSN 2008-3645

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Abstract

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes one of the major chronic liver diseases (CLD). Hepatitis C virus-core encoding sequence possesses an overlapping open reading frame (ORF) that expresses a protein called F or core+1. Objectives: The current study aimed at assessing the presence and titer of anti-core+1 antibody (Ab) in 70 Iranian patients infected with HCV-1a, responder and non-responder groups, under combination therapy with pegylated interferon-alpha (PegIFN-alpha) plus ribavirin (RBV) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Methods: In the current cohort study, HCV-1a core+1 gene was amplified and cloned into vector followed by expressing in Escherichia coli and then, purified by ion exchange chromatography. The antibody titer of patients was evaluated before, during (12, 24, and 48 weeks), and 6 months after the end of therapy (ETR). Results: The seroprevalence of anti-core+1 Ab was 75.7% in pretreatment sera. The combination therapy could induce a decline in the level of anti-core+1 Ab in both groups of responders and non-responders. These changes were significant only in the responders (P = 0.003). The seroprevalence of anti-core+1 Ab had no correlation with the outcome of treatment. Conclusions: According to the current study results, HCV core+1 protein elicit a specific antibody response other than the anti-core protein antibodies. The current study data also suggested that the level of anti-core+1 antibody might be affected by the combination therapyandassociated with sustained virological response (SVR). The data implied that the declining trend of anti-core+1 Abs during the treatment might be an alternative representation of the therapeutic response in Iranian population infected with HCV.

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