Detection and sequencing of hepatitis C virus RNA in blood donors without anti - HCV igG anti- bodies

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in 95 serum specimens of blood donors with anti-HCV IgG negative. Six out of 8 detections, HCV RNA was detected in 17 of 95 specimens (17. 9% ). These 17 HCV RNA positive specimens were detected once more for anti HCV IgG to confirm their negative detection. Sequencing data of hypervariable region from 8 of 17 positive PCR products showed that the amplificated sequences came from different HCV strains, and were not the false amplification because of PCR contamination. In these 8 PCR products, two nucleotide sequences were determined at fulllength, and showed higher homology of 77%~79% with the corresponding sequences of representative strain of HCV genotype Ⅱ than that of 62%~69% with the sequences of HCV genotypes Ⅰ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ, and were verified as HCV genotype Ⅱ sequences which are most popular among Chinese HCV infected cases. Our data demonstrated that anti-HCV IgG detection is not sensitive enough for HCV scre