Preparation of hepatitis C virus nonstructural region antigens and detection of their relative antibodies.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between HCV NS3 and the pathogenesis of HCV and research a method to assess the therapeutic effect of interferon (lEN) in clinic. METHODS: In a retrospective research, we used HCV-NS3 antigens of different terminals expressed in E. coli which contained the recombinant plasmids involving amino terminal region (N') or carboxyl terminal region (C') of HCV-NS3, to detect the antibodies by Western blot in sera of 63 hepatitis C patients who were treated with IFN. RESULTS: It proved that antibodies against HCV-NS3 N' and/or HCV NS3 C' terminals in hepatitis C patients may predict the treatment result of IFN, especially in the patients with chronic hepatitis C. CONCLUSIONS: The detection of antibodies against HCV-NS3 N' and/or C' terminals may be used for evaluation of IFN treatment, especially in chronic hepatitis C ones.