QUANTITATION OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD

丙型肝炎（HCV）是一种肠道外传播的RNA病毒， 在大多数非A-非B型慢性 活动性肝炎 该病毒造成相当大的发病率和死亡率 国际吧 自发现该病毒以来， 在定性和定量分析的发展， 抗病毒治疗期间的患者诊断和管理。 虽然 目前用于HCV的血清或血浆定量测定已被证明是有用的， 它们与HCV发病机制的相关性很差， 用于患者临床管理的诊断信息有限 在抗病毒治疗期间。 我们的实验室最近开发了一种 直接检测外周血中HCV RNA的方法 其比目前基于血浆或血清的HCV测定法更灵敏。 因此，定量分析的表征和标准化 检测全血中HCV的方法是值得的，并可提供 将全血病毒载量与肝脏病毒载量相关联的更可靠的方法 慢性感染的病理学和治疗。 这项建议会 解决这一假设有三个具体目标：1）建立在我们的 过去的观察，我们将开发和标准化的检测方法， 外周全血中HCV的定量。2）。数量整体 然后将使用HCV的血液检测来研究 全血病毒水平与肝组织学活动指数的关系。 3）。最后，我们将测量患者的全血病毒载量 在抗病毒治疗之前、期间和之后。 这些实验将 测试全血中HCV的定量是否可以潜在地改善 我们预测病人治疗后结果的能力 总目标 该建议的目的是建立可行性和临床实用性 外周血中病毒的定量检测方法 血 我们希望这项新技术能够改善患者评估 和管理，并增加我们对 HCV的发病机制

Hepatitis C (HCV) is a parenterally transmitted RNA virus that has been shown to be responsible for the majority of cases of NonA-NonB chronic active hepatitis. The virus causes considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. Since discovery of the virus, considerable progress has been made in the development of qualitative and quantitative assays for patient diagnosis and management during antiviral therapy. Although current serum or plasma quantitative assays for HCV have proven utility, their correlation with the pathogenesis of HCV is poor and they offer limited diagnostic information for clinical management of patients during antiviral therapy. Our laboratory has recently developed a method for the direct detection of HCV RNA in peripheral whole blood which is more sensitive than current plasma or serum based HCV assays. Consequently, characterization and standardization of quantitative methods for assay of HCV in whole blood is worthwhile and may provide a more reliable means to correlate whole blood viral load with hepatic pathology and treatment of chronic infection. This proposal will address this hypothesis with three specific aims: 1) Building on our past observations, we will develop and standardize assays for the quantitation of HCV in peripheral whole blood. 2). Quantitative whole blood assays for HCV will then be used to investigate the relationship of whole blood viral levels with hepatic histologic activity indices. 3). Finally, we will measure the whole blood viral load of patients before, during, and following antiviral therapy. These experiments will test whether quantitation of HCV in whole blood can potentially improve our ability to predict patient outcome after therapy. The overall goal of this proposal is to establish the feasibility and clinical utility of quantitative methods for measurement of the virus in peripheral whole blood. We hope that this new technology will improve patient evaluation and management, as well as increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of HCV.