Iranian Journal of Medical Microbiology (Dec 2013)
Diagnosis of HBV DNA in serum and cerumen in relation to some immunological parameters
Abstract
Background and Aim: Infection with hepatitis B virus is a major life threatening situation for more than two billion people throughout the world. Many people are chronic carriers and suffer from this fatal infection. The majority of these carriers live in South East of Asia. In Iran, 3 percentages of the people are carriers of this virus. Molecular methods can detect the virus in serum even though the HBsAg is negative. The current study was designed to evaluate the number of copy of the HBV DNA in serum and cerumen and its relation to some immunological parameters. Materials and Methods: Seventy chronic hepatitis B patients with at least one year history of the disease and aged 20-40 years were enrolled in this study. Serum and cerumen samples were taken from each participant and kept at -20 C. Diaplus Spine ELISA kit was used to measure some immunological parameters such as HBsAg, HBeAg and Anti HBe. In order to measure the copy number of HBV DNA, a quantitative Real Time PCR assay was performed using the BioRad detection PCR /USA)Tm CFX96system. Quantitative and qualitative parameters were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson chi squared tests or Fisher's exact test, respectively. Results: All cases were HBsAg positive. 22 out of the 70 patients (31.4%) were HBeAg positive. 48 (68.8%) were HBsAg negative, 37(53%) anti-HBe positive and 11(15.6%) were both anti-HBe and HBeAg negative. Patients who immunologically were Anti-HBe and HBeAg negative had the highest copy of HBV DNA among all CHB patients with different immunological properties compared to those who were either HBeAg positive, anti-HBe negative or HBeAg negative, anti-HBe positive with mean DNA copy of Mc=2.83 x107and 3.37x 108, respectively. Conclusion: The specificity of some immunological parameters such as HBeAg positive or negative, Anti-HBe positive or negative and simultaneous Anti-HBeAg and HBeAg negative in CHB patients can affect the mean HBV DNA copy number. This together with other parameters put the patients in different phases of the disease. Therefore, quantitative molecular methods performed on biological fluids like cerumen together with immunological parameters can help to manage the disease in CHB patients.
