Abstract
Viral hepatitis B is a serious, often chronic, progressive disease associated with cirrhosis of the liver or hepatocellular carcinoma.
The indications for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B as well as its discontinuance are based primarily on known serological markers of infections and quantitative determination of HBV DNA, which appear to be insufficient. HBV-infected hepatocytes have various types of HBV RNA, including pregenomic RNA (pgRNA). HBV RNA particles are present in the plasma of infected individuals and quantification of this pgRNA may be clinically useful in the management of patients with chronic hepatitis B. In this study HBV pgRNA levels were determined in 5 of 43 patients with chronic hepatitis B. Correlation between the level of HBV pgRNA and HBV DNA was not detected. It is necessary to use a more sensitive method to determine the level of HBV pgRNA. Moreover, this new biomarker cannot be assessed separately, but always in relation to the results of other serological and molecular genetic markers and patient characteristics. HBV pgRNA has not yet been investigated and the results are the first in Slovakia (Tab. 1, Fig. 1, Ref. 25). Text in PDF www.lekarskyobzor.sk.
Key words: hepatitis B, pregenomic RNA, HBV DNA, real-time PCR.
Lek Obz 2022; 71 (4): 163 – 167
Martina DUBINOVÁ 1, Marek STRAKA 1, Ján PREDNÝ 1, Eva STRUHÁRŇANSKÁ 2, Martina PEČIMONOVÁ 2, Andrea VEREŠPEJOVÁ 2, Patrícia Denisa LENÁRTOVÁ 3, Marián OLTMAN 4, Tomáš KOLLER 5, Stanislav STUCHLÍK 2, Adriána LIPTÁKOVÁ 1, Pavol KRISTIAN 3
1 Mikrobiologický ústav, Lekárska fakulta, Univerzita Komenského a Univerzitná nemocnica, Bratislava, prednosta doc. MUDr.
A. Liptáková, PhD., MPH
2 Katedra molekulárnej biológie, Prírodovedecká fakulta, Univerzita Komenského, Bratislava
3 Klinika infektológie a cestovnej medicíny, Lekárska fakulta Univerzity Pavla Jozefa Šafárika a Univerzitnej nemocnice L. Pasteura, Košice, prednosta prof. MUDr. P. Jarčuška, PhD.
4 Hepatologická ambulacia, LAMA MEDICAL CARE s.r.o., Bratislava
5 V. interná klinika, Lekárska fakulta, Univerzita Komenského a Univerzitná nemocnica, Bratislava, prednosta prof. MUDr. J. Payer, PhD., MPH, FRCP
Cite:
DUBINOVÁ M., STRAKA M., PREDNÝ J., STRUHÁRŇANSKÁ E., PEČIMONOVÁ M., VEREŠPEJOVÁ A., LENÁRTOVÁ P.D., OLTMAN M., KOLLER T., STUCHLÍK S., LIPTÁKOVÁ A., KRISTIAN P.: Quantitative determination of pregenomic RNA as a new biomarker of viral hepatitis B in patients‘ plasma. Lek Obz 2022; 71 (4): 163 – 167
