HCV核心抗原动态监测抗HCV疗效的临床研究

Objective To evaluate the performance of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen and HCV RNA PCR in the determining of the efficacy of HCV antiviral therapy in patients infected with HCV. Methods HCV core antigen and HCV RNA were measured in sera of 35 chronic HCV infected Chinese patients. Concentrations of HCV core antigen and HCV RNA were analyzed at 5 time points before, during and at the end of antiviral therapy. Results This study showed that the HCV core antigen and HCV RNA concentrations in 35 HCV patients were significantly correlated. Decrease of HCV core antigen and HCV RNA concentrations at the 4th, 12th,24th and 48th week were observed during the antiviral therapy. However,HCV core antigen levels at week 12 and 24 of therapy were significantly lower than those at week 4 (P < 0. 05 ). In contrast,no further decrease was observed in HCV RNA concentrations at weeks 12 and 24 (P >0. 05). HCV core antigen testing may be advantageous in some cases,in particular,the low levels of HCV core antigen at week 4 may be predictive of satisfactory outcome of treatment. Conclusions HCV core antigen represents a stable and sensitive marker of viral replication and could be used to monitor the clinical efficacy of HCV antiviral therapy.

Site-specific delivery of therapeutic drugs to their target cells is a major scientific challenge for the pharmaceutical sciences. It offers a number of advantages over conventional drug administration. With drug targeting, high local concentrations of the drug can be achieved, thus circumventing many unwanted side effects. Various carriers have been suggested for the delivery of drugs, including liposomes[1 - 5] and (neo ) glycoproteins[6-8]. The asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R) has frequently been utilized for targeting drugs to the parenchymal liver cell[6- 12]. Liposomes have several advantageous characteristics as drug carrier, and particularly, ligandtacked liposomes achieve a highly effective targeting[13]. Hara et al reported that asialofetuin (AF)-tacked liposomes distributed to rat hepatocytes selectively in vivo[14], and ASGP-R mediated the uptake of AF-liposomes encapsulating IFN-γ by isolated rat hepatocytes in vitro[15]. Lactosaminated human serum albumin (L-HSA) is a neoglycoprotein taking number of galactose residue as terminal sugar[6].

AIM To clone core gene cDNA of Chinese hepatitis C virus ( HCV ) into eukaryotic expression vector cosmid pTM3 and to express HCV core antigen in HepG2 cells.METHODS Core gene cDNA of HCV was introduced into eukaryotic expression vector cosmid pTM3. Using vaccinia virus/bacteriophage T7 hybrid expression system,HepG2 cells were transfected with the recombinant plasmid pTM3-Q534 by lipofectin.RESULTS From the transfected bacteria Top10F′, 2 pTM3-Q534 clones containing the recombinant plasmid were identified from randomly selected 10 ampicillin-resistant colonies. By reverse transcription PCR and indirect immunofluorescence technique, HCV RNA and core protein was identified in HepG2 cells transfected with the recombinant plasmid.CONCLUSION The construction of a recombinant plasmid and the expression of core gene cDNA of HCV in HepG2 was successful.