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Hepatitis C virus RNA in blood donor sera detected by the polymerase chain reaction: comparison with supplementary hepatitis C antibody assays

Widell, Anders LU ; Månsson, Ann-Sofie LU ; Sundstrom, Gunnar ; Hansson, Bengt-Göran LU and Nordenfelt, Erik (1991) In Journal of Medical Virology 35(4). p.253-258
Abstract
The low specificity of screening ELISAs for antibodies to hepatitis C virus in blood donors has called for confirmatory tests. Two types of supplementary antibody assays are available, recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA-1 and RIBA-2) and an antibody consumption test referred to as a neutralization assay. Amplification of viral nucleic acid by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides an antibody independent mode of detecting viral infection. We applied reverse transcription-double PCR to detect an HCV 5'-noncoding viral RNA sequence in serum specimens and compared PCR findings with confirmatory antibody tests. This study includes sera from 37 blood donors found positive by the Ortho anti-HCV (C100-3) ELISA out of 14,591 donations. Of... (More)
The low specificity of screening ELISAs for antibodies to hepatitis C virus in blood donors has called for confirmatory tests. Two types of supplementary antibody assays are available, recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA-1 and RIBA-2) and an antibody consumption test referred to as a neutralization assay. Amplification of viral nucleic acid by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides an antibody independent mode of detecting viral infection. We applied reverse transcription-double PCR to detect an HCV 5'-noncoding viral RNA sequence in serum specimens and compared PCR findings with confirmatory antibody tests. This study includes sera from 37 blood donors found positive by the Ortho anti-HCV (C100-3) ELISA out of 14,591 donations. Of the 37 positive sera, 8 were positive by RIBA-1 and 1 further by RIBA-2. Seven of the RIBA positive sera contained HCV RNA by PCR. Among the 8 indeterminate and the 21 negative donor sera by RIBA-I, no PCR positive serum was found. The 37 anti-HCV positive donor sera identified by Ortho ELISA were also tested by Abbott anti-HCV (C100-3) ELISA whereby 22 were positive. Of these 22 sera plus 1 further with ELISA OD just below cutoff, 8 were positive by the neutralization assay, (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL, USA) and 6 of these, including the borderline serum, were PCR positive. One of the two neutralizable but PCR negative sera was RIBA positive and the other was indeterminate. However, one ELIS. A (Abbott Laboratories) positive (OD 1.99) serum was not neutralizable but nevertheless contained HCV RNA by PCR. Thus in blood donor sera, anti-HCV (C100-3) reactivity confirmed by RIBA or neutralization correlated well with the presence of HCV RNA. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
hepatitis C PCR, HCV viremia, HCV test specificity, blood donor testing, enzymatic gene amplification
in
Journal of Medical Virology
volume
35
issue
4
pages
253 - 258
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • pmid:1724983
  • scopus:0025788210
ISSN
1096-9071
DOI
10.1002/jmv.1890350409
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
41f22a1f-bac7-4250-8b39-baa7c0046b55 (old id 1105613)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:59:20
date last changed
2021-01-03 03:22:22
@article{41f22a1f-bac7-4250-8b39-baa7c0046b55,
  abstract     = {{The low specificity of screening ELISAs for antibodies to hepatitis C virus in blood donors has called for confirmatory tests. Two types of supplementary antibody assays are available, recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA-1 and RIBA-2) and an antibody consumption test referred to as a neutralization assay. Amplification of viral nucleic acid by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides an antibody independent mode of detecting viral infection. We applied reverse transcription-double PCR to detect an HCV 5'-noncoding viral RNA sequence in serum specimens and compared PCR findings with confirmatory antibody tests. This study includes sera from 37 blood donors found positive by the Ortho anti-HCV (C100-3) ELISA out of 14,591 donations. Of the 37 positive sera, 8 were positive by RIBA-1 and 1 further by RIBA-2. Seven of the RIBA positive sera contained HCV RNA by PCR. Among the 8 indeterminate and the 21 negative donor sera by RIBA-I, no PCR positive serum was found. The 37 anti-HCV positive donor sera identified by Ortho ELISA were also tested by Abbott anti-HCV (C100-3) ELISA whereby 22 were positive. Of these 22 sera plus 1 further with ELISA OD just below cutoff, 8 were positive by the neutralization assay, (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, IL, USA) and 6 of these, including the borderline serum, were PCR positive. One of the two neutralizable but PCR negative sera was RIBA positive and the other was indeterminate. However, one ELIS. A (Abbott Laboratories) positive (OD 1.99) serum was not neutralizable but nevertheless contained HCV RNA by PCR. Thus in blood donor sera, anti-HCV (C100-3) reactivity confirmed by RIBA or neutralization correlated well with the presence of HCV RNA.}},
  author       = {{Widell, Anders and Månsson, Ann-Sofie and Sundstrom, Gunnar and Hansson, Bengt-Göran and Nordenfelt, Erik}},
  issn         = {{1096-9071}},
  keywords     = {{hepatitis C PCR; HCV viremia; HCV test specificity; blood donor testing; enzymatic gene amplification}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{253--258}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{Journal of Medical Virology}},
  title        = {{Hepatitis C virus RNA in blood donor sera detected by the polymerase chain reaction: comparison with supplementary hepatitis C antibody assays}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmv.1890350409}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/jmv.1890350409}},
  volume       = {{35}},
  year         = {{1991}},
}