Investigation of residual hepatitis C virus in presumed recovered subjects
- Fujiwara, Kei
- Allison, Robert. D.
- Wang, Richard Y.
- Baré, Patricia
- Matsuura, Kentaro
- Schechterly, Cathy
- Murthy, Krishna
- Marincola, Francesco M.
- Alter, Harvey J.
DOIAbstract
Recent studies have found hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of the majority of presumed recovered subjects. We investigated this unexpected finding using samples from patients whose HCV RNA and anti-HCV status had been serially confirmed. HCV RNA was detected in PBMCs from 66/67 chronic HCV carriers. Subpopulation analysis revealed that the viral load (log copies/10(6) cells) in B cells (4.14 ± 0.71) was higher than in total PBMCs (3.62 ± 0.71, p<0.05), T cells (1.67 ± 0.88, p<0.05), and non-B/T cells (2.48 ± 1.15, p<0.05). HCV negative-strand RNA was not detected in PBMCs from any of 25 chronically infected patients. No residual viral RNA was detected in total PBMCs or plasma of 59 presumed recovered...
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