Hepatitis C virus core antigen testing: Role in diagnosis, disease monitoring and treatment

While hepatitis B virus(HBV)screening relies on hepatitis B surface antigen to confirm HBV infection since the early days of hepatitis B disease management,hepatitis C virus(HCV)infection screening is based on anti-HCV testing which does not discriminate active from past infection.Thus to confirm infection HCV RNA testing has been required;recently a HCV core antigen assay became widely commercially available which could serve to confirm infection.That assay is less sensitive than current HCV RNA assays,but as more than 50%of anti-HCV positive persons will be HCV core antigen positive,HCV core antigen testing can be a cost effective and reflex test to confirm HCV infection in anti-HCV positive individuals and will be easier as it can be applied on the same platform.For treatment monitoring,more data need to be generated,but the early data available at present suggest that HCV core antigen may be an alternative to HCV RNA monitoring.With direct antivirals,HCV core antigen could even be superior to HCV RNA testing,as direct antivirals might already prevent virus formation when HCV core antigen is still produced and thereby correlates better with eventual viral clearance.

Molecular authentication of the traditional Chinese medicine Tongren Dahuoluo Wan and its alternative formulation

Tongren Dahuoluo Wan has been a popular traditional Chinese medicine in international pharmaceutical markets for hundreds of years. Leopard bone powder is the key element in its formulation. However, the leopard has been listed for wildlife conservation, which limits the use of the leopard bone supplies. Therefore, an alternative formulation which substitutes leopard bone with zokor bone in the formula of Tongren Dahuoluo Wan is now manufactured. To develop a simple and reliable molecular method for authenticating the two patent medicines,mitochondrial nucleotide polymorphic sites of 12 S rRNA,COI and Cytb genes were screened in leopard and zokor bones, and nine pairs of species-specific primers were verified for discriminating the two species. For the patent medicine authentication, we set up a molecular diagnostic assay to resolve the difficulties of low concentration of target DNAs and presence of PCR-inhibitory substances in this complex medicine, and successfully confirmed leopard or zokor content using the nine pairs of species-specific primers. We recommend a common technical strategy for authentication of species origins in traditional Chinese medicine, and discuss the experimental solutions for technical problems of molecular diagnostic assays.