ABSTRACT
Background: Hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection has been reported to be the most common blood born pathogen all over the world. The prevalence of HCV in children in developed countries ranges between 0.1 and 0.4%, and is generally lower than in adults. Combinedpegylated interferon and ribavirin is still the only standard of care treatment in spite of its side effects, high costs and low sustained virological response [SVR] rates. Hence, this provides a compelling reason for the identification of biomarker predictors of disease response to treatment
Objective: To evaluate anti-C1q antibody as a predictor of chronic HCV response to treatment with combined pegylated interferon alpha-2b and ribavirin in Egyptian children
Methodology: This study was conducted on forty-four chronic HCV-infected children [Male/Female: 30/14; aged 12.02 +/- 3.1 years] from the outpatient clinic, Pediatric Hepatology Department, National Liver Institute, Menoufiya University. They were given combined pegylated interferon alpha-2b [Peg-IFN-alpha-2b] and ribavirin [RBV] for 48 weeks and a quantitative polymerase chain reaction [PCR] for hepatitis C virus Ribonucleic acid was performed at 12, 24, 48 weeks during treatment and after another 24 weeks post-treatment. Anti-HCV antibody and Real-time PCR for HCV-RNA was performed [the detection limit was 15 IU/mL]. Anti-C1q antibodies were performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]
Results: Serum levels of Anti-C1q antibodies were significantly higher [P = 0.001] in the Non-responders group [mean = 14.61 +/- 6.749ng/ml] compared to the SVR one [mean = 2.27 +/- 3.77ng/ml]. No statistically significant difference [P > 0.05] had been found between SVR and Non-responders regarding the age, ALT, viral load, or hepatic necroinflammatory activity and liver fibrosis. Anti-C1q at a cutoff value of 9.05 ng/ml, had sensitivity and specificity of 84.6% and 75% respectively and 92% positive predictive value. No significant correlation between the serum level of anti-C1q antibodies and the age, sex or HCV viral load, liver enzymes, and the degree of fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity was found [P> 0.05] for all parameters
Conclusion: Anti-C1q could be a good predictor for HCV treatment and should be included in pretreatment laboratory assessment for proper choice of chronic HCV children patients who will benefit from combination therapy