Hepatitis C virus core protein detection by DNA aptamer

Abstract

Hepatitis C, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), is a serious infectious disease without vaccine. The development of methods and reagents for simple and sensitive HCV proteins detection is very important for the early stage diagnosis of HCV infection. In this work, we selected a DNA aptamer C7 which can specifically bind with HCV core antigen. Using this aptamer, we developed an aptamer-ELISA method to detect HCV core protein in both buffer and serum. The method was successfully used to diagnose HCV infected patients' serum. It provided a new approach for easy, sensitive and low-cost blood screening and diagnosis of HCV infection.