Biotecnologia Aplicada Elfos Scientiae ISSN: 0684-4551 Vol. 12, Num. 2, 1995, pp. 93-94

REPORTE CORTO/SHORT REPORT

Presented in the Congress Biotecnologia Habana'94. La Habana, Cuba, Nov. 28 - Dec. 3, 1994

THE HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTION IN CUBA: ANTIBODY PATTERN AND GENOTYPES

Guillermo J. Padron1, Juan Roca1, Shahid Jameel2, Enrique Arus3, Luis Rivera4.

1Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Havana, Cuba. 2International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. 3Hospital ,Hermanos Almejeiras, Havana, Cuba. 4Hospital Carlos J. Finlay, Havana Cuba.

Code Number: BA95034
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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the responsible of more than 90% post- transfusion hepatitis and a high proportion of chronic cases. HCV infection is a serious health problem in Cuba (Padron et al., 1994) and the knowledge of its characteristics is an important cornerstone in order to structure control strategies. The aim of the present paper is to show the serologic pattern of this infection in Cuban hepatitis patients and to report the genotypes identified in our carriers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The antibody pattern study was performed using samples positive to anti-HCV from Cuban chronic and acute patients. The positivity to different HCV proteins was established using two line-dot systems (RIBA 2.0, Chiron Corp, USA and LiaTek HCV, Organon Teknika, Netherlands). Genotyping was performed by the cDNA- nested PCR procedure using specific primers for each described genotype and samples of individuals at higher risk of infection.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The antibodies to core antigens appear earlier and are the most frequently found among Cuban HCV carriers (75% of acute and 100% of choronic cases) after RIBA 2.0, followed by antibodies to protein from NS3 region C33c (table 1). LiaTeck HCV showed a better performance of its core antigens (100% and 84.2% in chronic and acute cases, respectively), specially in the detection of acute cases during seroconversion (table 2). It yielded less indeterminate results in both acute and chronica individuals. The NS4 synthetic antigen in LiaTek showed a better performance (83.9%) than the recombinant proteins C-100-3 and 5- 1-1 of RIBA 2.0 (58.5 and 62.3%, respectively).

The genotype II (Okamoto et al. 1992) was found in 26 out of 28 (92.6%) individuals tested (Table 3). This correlates with the high propensity toward chronic and more severe forms of the disease found in Cuban patients (Arus et al, 1994). The high rate of multiple genotypes in studied samples is due to the higher risk to HCV infection of the selected carriers, which increases the probability of multiple infection.

Table 1.Antibody Pattern (RIBA 2.0) among Cuban patients (%)

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                        RIBA antigens
Patients    5-1-1   C-100-3   C33c   C22     Indet.     Total
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Chronic   29 70.70  26 63.4  37 90.2 41 100   8  19.5    41
Acute     4  33.3   5  41.7  8  66.7 9  75.0  7  58.3    12
Total     33 62.3   31 58.5  45 84.9 50 94.3  15 28.3    53
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Table 2.Antibody Pattern (LiaTek HCV) among Cuban patients (%)

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                      LiaTek Antigens
Patients     NS4     NS%   C-1   C-2   C-3   C-4   Indet. Total
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Chronic      57      36    52     56    44    49     6     68
             83.8    52.9  76.5   82.4  64.7  72.1   8.8
Acute        16      13    15     15    11    13     5     19
             84.2    68.4  78.9   78.9  57.9  68.4   26.3
Total        73      49    67     71    55    62     11    87
             83.9    56.3  77.0   81.6  63.2  71.3   12.6
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Genotype                  Cases           8**
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I                         3               10.7
II                        26              92.9
III                       0               0
IV                        4               14.3
V                         11              39.3
VI                        0               0
Multiple*                 16              57.1
Non classified            5
Total                     33
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* Classification of genotypes after Okamoto et al. 1992

** On the basis of 28 classified cases

REFERENCES

1. OKAMOTO et al.(1992) Virology, 188:331- 341

2. PADRON et al. (1994) Biotecnologia Aplicada, 11 (in press)

3. AR S et al. (1994) Hepatology 19: 40Y (abstract)

Copyright 1995 Sociedad Iberolatinoamericana de Biotecnologia Aplicada a la Salud