慢性丙肝患者干扰素治疗血清中丙肝病毒负链RNA的检测及临床意义

Clinical Significance in Detection of Negative Strand RNA of Hepatitis C Virus in the Serum of Chronic Hepatitis C Patients Treated with Interferon

利用套式逆转录多聚酶链反应（RT－PCR）方法，对17例慢性丙肝患者进行了血清丙肝病毒正、负链RNA的检测，并且动态观察了其对干扰素治疗的反应。结果发现治疗前17例患者血清中正链RNA均阳性，13例血清负链RNA亦阳性（反应组8例，无反应组5例）。治疗后反应组中4例血清正链RNA阴转，3例负链RNA阴转；无反应组中血清正、负链RNA状况无变化。提示患者血清中有正、负链RNA复制复合体存在，体内有活跃的病毒复制；干扰素对丙肝病毒及复制活动有抑制作用。负链RNA作为病毒复制活动的直接标志，对评估和预测丙肝治疗的疗效有一定的意义。

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive strand RNA virus. It replicates through a negative strand RNA as the intermediator which in turn is used as the template in the subsequent amplification of the positive strand genomic RNAs. Replicative form as detected by nested PCR procedure was monitored in 17 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon. Positive strand RNA of HCV was found in all the 17 patients and negative strand was foun in 13 before interferon treatment. At the end of therapeutic course of interferon for 12 weeks,9 were responders and 8 were non-responders. In the responder group the positive strand became nondetectable in 4 and also 3 out of 13 negative strand ones became nondetectable the same. In contrast, in non-responder group both positive and negative strands there were no change however. These results demonstrate that active infectionand replication of HCV is present in patients with chronic hepatitis C and interferon seems able to exert an inhibitory effect on this process. It suggests that detection of negative strand RNA of HCV may be a useful marker for evaluating and predicting the effect of treatment.