Evaluation of real-time RT-PCR quantitation of HCV RNA compared to other diagnostic methods [electronic resource].

Includes references.

C virus (HCV), a single-stranded RNA virus .belonging to the Flaviviridae family, has been identified as a major pathogen of post transfusion and community- transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis. One limitation in HCV research is the lack of a highly sensitive and specific assay to measure viral loads in plasma or serum. HCV circulates in the blood at a low copy number and its genome is extremely heterogeneous. Many investigators used different methods to quantifY the viral load in HCV-infected patients. Recently, a real-time RT-PCR analysis has been employed successfully for both basic research and clinical applications. In the present work, 72 patients were studied on referral to the molecular biology research unit of Assuit university, Egypt for HCV quantification by real-time PCR. Initially, all patients were screened by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the presence of anti-HCV antibodies. Six cases (8.3%) were anti- HCV positive and 66 cases (91.7%) were non-reactive for HCV- antibodies in their sera. Real-time RTpolymerase chain reaction assay for quantification of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in the sera of all patients was carried out using a pair of primers and Taq-man probe that are specific for recognsion of highly conservative 5'- non coding region (5\- NCR) ofHCV genome.

Summary in Arabic.