Multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-PCR for Simultaneous Detection of Hepatitis B, C, and E Virus

The hepatitis B virus (HBV), HCV, and HEV may occur as singly or concurrently in patients of different kind of liver disease. The rapid, reliable, and cost-effective screening of these pathogens is required for the large epidemiological studies. Therefore, a study has been planned to develop a multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-PCR assay which can be used for the screening of maximum number of pathogens at a time.

To develop multiplex Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) assay for simultaneous detection of HBV, HCV, and HEV; the serum samples of 54 patients who were positive either singly or in co-infection with for HBV, HCV, and HEV serologically were screened by uniplex PCR/RT-PCR followed by multiplex RT-PCR for HBV, HCV, and HEV using specific primers. These primers can detect most genotypes of these viruses. Multiplex RT-PCR was done in one tube for the identification of viral DNA/RNA using a mixture of three pairs of specific primers for hepatitis B, C, and E viruses. Representative positive samples of these viruses by uniplex/multiplex RT-PCR were also confirmed by sequencing followed by alignment with reference strains sequence.

The specificity of multiplex PCR was 100% with high sensitivity 89%, 87%, and 74% for HBV, HCV, and HEV respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of RT-multiplex PCR demonstrated a good correlation with that of uniplex PCR.

The study suggests that multiplex RT-PCR can serve as a simple and reliable assay for rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for simultaneous detection of super-infections with HEV particularly in Asian countries as a cause of decompensation of chronic liver disease.