Circulating Pregenomic HBV RNA is Primarily Full-length in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Undergoing Nucleos(t)ide Analogue Therapy
Mark Anderson 1 , Jeffery Gersch 1 , Ka-Cheung Luk 1 , George Dawson 1 , Ivana Carey 2 , Kosh Agarwal 3 , Pir Shah 4 , Geoffrey Dusheiko 3 , Daryl Lau 5 , Gavin Cloherty 1
Affiliations
Affiliations
1
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Diagnostics Division, Abbott Park, Illinois.
2
King's College, London, United Kingdom.
3
Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
4
Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts.
5
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
PMID: 32687164 DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1015
Abstract
HBV RNA is detectable in the serum of infected patients, however the RNA species has been questioned. We tested 1827 specimens using a quantitative dual-target qPCR assay and determined full-length pregenomic RNA is the primary source. These results clarify the major identity of circulating HBV RNA species.