Garg G, Kumar D, Asim M, Husain SA, Das BC, Kar P. Multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-PCR for Simultaneous Detection of Hepatitis B, C, and E Virus.
J Clin Exp Hepatol 2016;
6:33-9. [PMID:
27194894 PMCID:
PMC4862013 DOI:
10.1016/j.jceh.2015.10.001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2015] [Accepted: 10/11/2015] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The hepatitis B virus (HBV), HCV, and HEV may occur as singly or concurrently in patients of different kind of liver disease. The rapid, reliable, and cost-effective screening of these pathogens is required for the large epidemiological studies. Therefore, a study has been planned to develop a multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-PCR assay which can be used for the screening of maximum number of pathogens at a time.
METHODOLOGY
To develop multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) assay for simultaneous detection of HBV, HCV, and HEV; the serum samples of 54 patients who were positive either singly or in co-infection with for HBV, HCV, and HEV serologically were screened by uniplex PCR/RT-PCR followed by multiplex RT-PCR for HBV, HCV, and HEV using specific primers. These primers can detect most genotypes of these viruses. Multiplex RT-PCR was done in one tube for the identification of viral DNA/RNA using a mixture of three pairs of specific primers for hepatitis B, C, and E viruses. Representative positive samples of these viruses by uniplex/multiplex RT-PCR were also confirmed by sequencing followed by alignment with reference strains sequence.
RESULTS
The specificity of multiplex PCR was 100% with high sensitivity 89%, 87%, and 74% for HBV, HCV, and HEV respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of RT-multiplex PCR demonstrated a good correlation with that of uniplex PCR.
CONCLUSION
The study suggests that multiplex RT-PCR can serve as a simple and reliable assay for rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for simultaneous detection of super-infections with HEV particularly in Asian countries as a cause of decompensation of chronic liver disease.
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