Journal of Blood Disorders & Transfusion

Prevalence of occult hepatitis-C virus infection in the Iranian patients with beta-thalassemia major

5^th World Hematologists Congress

August 18-19, 2016 London, UK

Farah Bokharaei-Salim

Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Blood Disord Transfus

Abstract:

Occult hepatitis-C virus infection (OCI) is a new pathological entity of chronic HCV infection characterized by the presence of the HCV-RNA in liver biopsy and/or PBMC specimens and the absence of HCV-RNA and anti-HCV Abs in plasma samples. The β-thalassemia major is a hereditary recessive blood disease with deficiency in the hemoglobin beta chain. Thalassemic patients need blood transfusion therapy; repeated blood transfusion increases viral blood borne infection. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of OCI in the Iranian patients with β-thalassemia major. A total of 147 Iranian patients with β-thalassemia major were enrolled in this study. After extraction of the viral RNA from the samples, the genomic HCV-RNA of the specimens was amplified by RT-nested PCR using primers from the 5β-UTR. The HCV genotypes of the positive specimens were tested using the RFLP assay. To confirm the HCV genotypes, the 5β-UTR fragment was amplified and cloned into pJET1.2/ blunt cloning vector and then sequenced. From the 147 patients, 106 (72.1%) were anti-HCV Abs and HCV-RNA negative. The HCV-RNA was found in PBMC specimens of six (5.7%) patients, from a total of 106 patients with undetectable HCV-RNA plasma and anti-HCV Abs. Therefore, six out of 106 patients had OCI. The HCV genotyping revealed that three patients were infected with HCV-subtype 1b, two patients were infected with HCV-subtype 3a and one patient was infected with HCV-subtype 1a. The obtained results revealed that Iranian patients with beta-thalassemia major may have OCI. Therefore, it seems that the design of a study to identify this infection in the patients with β-thalassemia major would provide valuable information.

Biography :

Farah Bokharaei-Salim has completed her PhD in 2010 from Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. She is an Assistant Professor of Virology at Iran University of Medical Sciences and she is also a Technical Assistant of HIV Laboratory of National Center at Deputy of Health of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. She has published more than 20 papers.

Email: Bokharaeifarah@gmail.com