Patients with chronic hepatitis C that has been resolved through therapy or immune response could still be able to infect others with the virus.

An estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Most people who are infected with hepatitis C don't have any symptoms for years. Hepatitis C is chronic when the body can’t get rid of the hepatitis C virus. Although some people clear the virus from their bodies in a few months, most hepatitis C infections become chronic. Chronic hepatitis C can cause cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.

Patients who achieve a sustained viral response show no clinical or biochemical evidence of liver disease and standard tests can no longer detect the virus in their blood. However, more sensitive research tests are finding that such patients often still have miniscule amounts of the virus in their bodies.

Researchers examined whether these trace remainders are infectious using a system that allows for propagation of HCV in human T cells in vitro.

They began with nine patients with hepatitis C who had achieved a sustained viral response that persisted for at least two years after treatment. HCV RNA was detectable in their blood only with the more sensitive tests. HCV RNA tests are used to diagnose hepatitis C by determining exactly how much virus is in the blood.

The researchers set up twelve cultures of lymphoid cells from healthy donors, and exposed them to plasma or to supernatants of cultured circulating lymphoid cells from the HCV patients. Eleven of the cell cultures became HCV RNA positive.

"Our present findings reveal that HCV circulating in some individuals with resolved hepatitis C is capable of inducing productive infection in vitro at doses of 20 to 50 copies," the study authors conclude. "This can be interpreted as a strong indication of potential virus infectivity in vivo."

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References:
1. Sonya A. MacParland, Tram N. Q. Pham, Clifford S. Guy, Tomasz I. Michalak. Hepatitis C Virus Persisting at Low Levels after Clinically Apparent Sustained Virological Reponse to Antiviral Therapy Retains Its Infectivity in Vitro. Hepatology, Volume 49, Issue 5, Pages: 1431-1441.

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