Dynamics of hepatitis C viremia.
نویسنده
چکیده
To the Editor—The recent report of Yasui et al. [1] describing the dynamics of hepatitis C viremia following interferon-a administration contains some intriguing information regarding the ratio of core protein to hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA. First, there are very few laboratories that can measure the concentration of HCV core protein in serum. Thus, the information provided in table 1 of [1], giving the concentration of core protein (picograms/milliliter) and the corresponding concentration of HCV RNA (kilocopies/milliliter), allow the number of core protein molecules per RNA to be calculated. This calculation is based on the predicted molecular mass of the core protein as 21 kDa and Avogadro’s constant of being the 23 6.02 3 10 number of molecules per mole. Taking the mean values from table 1 for 12 different sera gives a ratio of RNA molecules to picogram of core of 2342:1. Since 1 pg of core is equal to molecules, the ratio of RNA to core protein is 1: 7 2.87 3 10 12,240. This is a surprisingly high number! It has been assumed that HCV, like other members of the flaviviridae, has a spherical nucleocapsid containing 1 molecule of RNA. If this is the case, then the number of core protein molecules per capsid will be a multiple of 60. One would guess that in the case of HCV capsid, there would be 180 copies of the core protein per RNA molecule. Whatever the precise figure is, it is considerably less than that observed by Yasui et al. [1]. As calculated above, their data suggest there are 12,240 copies of core protein per RNA molecule. This indicates that there may be many “empty” particles in the serum of HCV-infected patients. These are virions that contain capsids (or possibly free capsids) that do not contain RNA. The implications of this with regard to the mechanisms of persistence and immune evasion are obvious. With the techniques at their disposal, Yasui et al. [1] could establish whether there are indeed two populations of particles in the serum of HCV-infected patients. These particles would differ in their densities on the basis of the presence or absence of RNA.
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Journal of infectious diseases
دوره 179 1 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1999