Elevated Concentration of Defensins in Hepatitis C Virus-Infected Patients.

Ehab H Mattar,Abdullah A Aljaddawi,Hussein A Almehdar,Isam Eldin M Abu Zeid,Elrashdy M Redwan

doi:10.1155/2016/8373819

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major etiological agent of human non-A and non-B hepatitis, affecting around 180 million people worldwide. Defensins, small cysteine-rich cationic peptides, are shown to have potent antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Defensins can be found in both normal and microbial infected patients, at variable concentrations. Notably, viral infections are often associated with elevated concentrations of defensins. The current study aimed to estimate the concentrations of total, α-, and β-defensins in serum taken from normal and HCV-infected patients. 12 healthy (noninfected) and 34 HCV-infected patients were enrolled. Standardized immunoassay kits were used to obtain serum concentrations of defensins. The obtained results were calibrated against kit standard reagents. Total defensin concentrations in HCV-infected patients were significantly higher (2- to 105-fold) compared to healthy individuals. The concentrations of α-defensins were also significantly elevated in the HCV-infected patients (31–1398 ng/50 μL). However, concentrations of β-defensins ranged from 44.5 ng/50 μL to 1056 ng/50 μL. The results did not reveal differences in serum defensin concentration between male and female HCV-infected patients. A-defensin concentration of ≥250 ng/50 μL was found to contain more β-defensins than total defensins and α-defensins. This study concludes, for the first time, that serum defensin levels are elevated in HCV-infected patients.

Highlights

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an enveloped, single positivestranded RNA virus that belongs to the Flaviviridae family
The enrolment criteria were based on thorough history taking: patients were considered eligible if (1) no coinfection with HIV or hepatitis B virus (HBV) was present; (2) they suffered from HCV disease and underwent a complete clinical and laboratory evaluation, including tests for liver function; and (3) their serum contained HCV antibodies (confirmed by measuring serum HCV-RNA titre using quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and TaqMan technology) [32]
The α- and β-defensins are present in different vertebrate species, where they are found in the granules of immune cells, epithelial tissue, body fluids, and mucosal surfaces [40]

Summary

Introduction

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an enveloped, single positivestranded RNA virus that belongs to the Flaviviridae family. Its genome consists of around 10,000 nucleotides and encodes a single polyprotein of 3010–3033 amino acids. HCV polyprotein is cleaved by both host cell and viral proteases into at least 10 distinct structural and nonstructural protein products. The major structural proteins are a core (C) protein, two envelope proteins, E1 and E2, and a short hydrophobic peptide p7 [1]. HCV is a major cause of parenterally transmitted non-A and non-B hepatitis worldwide [2], and infection with HCV is one of the leading causes of chronic liver disease worldwide [3, 4]. Efforts to achieve a breakthrough in antiviral clinical research for chronic HCV are currently underway in Western countries [6] and Japan [7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion