Hepatitis delta virus RNA detection in chronic HBsAg carriers with and without HIV infection.

Castillo I, Bartolomé J, Madejón A, Melero M, Porres JC, Carreño V.

Department of Gastroenterology, Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) RNA detection was carried out, using a full-length HDV RNA probe, in serum of 43 patients with chronic HDV infection. Among them, 30 cases (70%) were HDV RNA-positive. With respect to other HDV markers, serum HDAg (detected by immunoblot) was found in 33 patients (77%) and IgM anti-HD in 29 (67%). A similar percentage of HDV RNA-positive patients with and without circulating hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA (32.5 vs. 37%, respectively) was found. Antibodies against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were detected in 15/43 subjects studied. The presence of HDV RNA was significantly higher (p less than 0.05) in anti-HIV-seropositive cases (93%) than in the HIV-seronegative ones (57%). Moreover, simultaneous HDV and HBV replication was found more frequently (60 vs. 18%, p less than 0.05) and at higher levels among the anti-HIV-positive patients than in the rest. In addition, in most of the anti-HIV-positive subjects, HDV RNA and HBV DNA were constantly positive during a whole year of follow-up.