High cross-reactivity of hypervariable region 1 antibody of hepatitis C virus is associated with early virological response in chronic hepatitis C patients undergoing antiviral therapy

Objective To discuss the relationship between the cross-reactivity of antibody against the hypervariable region 1（HVR1） of hepatitis C virus and early viral response (EVR) in patients undergoing antiviral therapy. Methods By ELISA and HCV HVR1 antibody cross-reactivity matrix reagent, the differences of anti-HCV hypervariable region antibody were tested in baseline serum from 46 patients with chronic hepatitis C before antiviral therapy.HCV genotyping and HCV RNA were analyzed by RT-PCR method.The HCV RNA assay was done at three time points: before treatment, pegylated interferon in combination with ribavirin therapy for 12 and 48 weeks. Results In 46 cases of chronic hepatitis C patients, there were 16 cases with HCV 2a type, 30 cases with 1b and 33 patients obtained EVR.The EVR incidence of type 2a［93.8%(15/16)］was higher than that of type 1b［60.0%(18/30)，χ2=4.316，P＜0.05］.In the EVR group of type 1b chronic hepatitis C patients, the positive number of average multi-target HVR1 antigen was （12±4）, which was significantly higher than that in the Non-EVR patients ［（7±5），t=2.797，P＜0.01］.By the Fisher exact test, it was showed that patients'serum response to HVR1 antigens numbered 001, 003, 009, 013, 016 were higher in EVR group than those in non-EVR group, with statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The cross-reactivity of HVR1 antibody may play an important role in predicting the effectiveness of antiviral therapy.(Chin J Lab Med,2012,35:630-633) Key words: Hepatitis C virus; Hypervariable region 1; Cross-reactivity; Quasipecies; Antiviral therapy