Getting to the Core of HCV

The World Health Organization estimates that about three percent of the world’s population is infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), the majority of whom are asymptomatic and undiagnosed.

Finding out that one has Hepatitis C would enable a patient to embark on a treatment regime and may also encourage changes to harmful behaviors that could further spread the disease. And now there is a faster, better way for patients’ to find out if they carry HCV—the Hepatitis C Core antigen test on ARCHITECT immunoassay analysers – ARCHITECT HCV Ag.

What is Hepatitis C and HCV?

Hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the hepatitis C virus. HCV was first identified in the late 1980s and is one of five distinct viruses that cause hepatitis (inflammation of the liver). A member of the Flaviviridae family, HCV is a small, lipid-enveloped virus containing single, positive stranded RNA. The virus is highly variable with six recognised genotypes and many subgroups.

Hepatitis C can range in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness. It’s usually spread when blood from an infected person enters the body of someone who is not infected. For most people, acute infection leads to chronic infection. As many as two to four million people may be chronically infected in the U.S., five to 10 million in Europe, and about 12 million in India, and most do not know they are infected, therefore many times identified as a “silent killer”. According to the World Health Organization, the estimated annual costs of hepatitis C (medical and work loss) is above one billion in the U.S. dollars.

There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. The best way to prevent hepatitis C is by avoiding behaviors that can spread the disease.

HCV Detection

Definitive viral hepatitis detection for diagnostic or blood screening purposes requires a panel of viral-specific hepatitis tests. Using commercially available immunoassays, HCV antibodies may not be detected for 30-70 days after exposure. However, nucleic acid testing for detection of HCV RNA or HCV antigen testing for the detection HCV core protein has dramatically reduced this pre-seroconversion window period.

Abbott has developed a highly sensitive assay for the quantitative determination of HCV antigen for use on the ARCHITECT platform. A poster presented at the Regional Congress of the ISBT- Europe determined assay sensitivity by testing ten commercially available seroconversion panels that were initially nucleic acid negative. In each panel examined, a positive result in the HCV antigen assay was obtained prior to detection of the HCV antibody, resulting in an average reduction in the window period of 35.8 days.

Why is Early Diagnosis Important?

Chronic hepatitis C is a serious disease that can result in long-term health problems including liver failure, liver cancer, or even death. There are things that people with chronic hepatitis C can do to avoid continued liver damage (i.e. no alcohol, etc.). The sooner a person knows that he or she has hepatitis C, the sooner he or she can start taking steps to get better, maintain his or her health, and help stop the spread of this contagious disease.

“The recent appearance of a new test that is non-molecular and automated, like any serologic marker, for the detection of nucleocapsid proteins (HCV core Ag), opens new horizons in the diagnosis of this infection.”

Antonio Fuertes.
PhD in Medicine and Surgery
Department of Microbiology
“12 de Octubre” Hospital, Madrid, Spain