Design, development and evaluation of a competitive RT-PCR for quantitation of GBV-C RNA.

RUIZ V; ESPINOLA L; MATHET VL; PERANDONES CE; OUBINA JR.

JOURNAL OF VIROLOGICAL METHODS

Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press

Lugar: Ámsterdam, Netherlands; Año: 2006 vol. 136 p. 58 - 64

0166-0934

Although GB virus C (GBV-C) hepatocyte pathogenicity is still controversial, it appears that at least some strains of this virus are lymphotropic.During the past few years, several reports have documented an apparently beneficial role played by GBV-C in the course of HIV-1 infection. At present, a commercial kit for GBV-C RNA quantitation is not available. In this study, a competitive RT-PCR method for GBV-C in serum samples is described. The sensitivity of the assay proved to be 104 and 103 genomic equivalents for positive and negative sense RNAs, respectively. This method will discriminate specifically between positive and negative strand RNAs with a discrimination index of at least five log10. Out of 60 samples from different hematological disorders (n = 49), HIV-1 positive patients (n = 7), and blood donors (n = 4), 10 proved to be GBV-C RNA positive. Viral load ranged from 1.1×107 to 2.34×108 genomic equivalents/ml. Such values correlated linearly (r = 0.986) with those obtained by a 10-fold serial dilution method. In studies exploring the GBV-C pathogenicity, the measurement of viral load may contribute to understand the possible mechanisms involved..