Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which was formerly described as the parenterally transmitted form of non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH), becomes a chronic disease in 50% of the cases. HCV can also be transmitted through intravenous drug abuse, sexual , and household contact. Hepatitis C virus is a single stranded RNA virus with some structural relations to the flavivirus family. Nucleic acid sequences of HCV cDNA clones provided the basis for the construction of recombinant peptides representing putative hepatitis C virus proteins. Anti-hepatitis C virus antibody screening of blood using synthetic or recombinant proteins, helped to identify apparently healthy blood donors with anti-HCV antibodies who otherwise might have transmitted the virus.
This is an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay using recombinant proteins derived from core regions of HCV virus to detect the presence of HCV antibodies in human sera
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PRINCIPLE OF THE ASSAY:
Multiple epitopes of HCV proteins are bound to the microtiter wells. When antibodies to HCV are present in the test sample, they react with recombinant proteins and attach to the solid-phase. Non-reactive antibodies are removed with the wash buffer. Human IgGs bound to the antigen are reacted with goat-anti-human IgG peroxidase conjugate and visualized by subsequent reactions with a chromogenic substrate. Positive sample generates a medium to dark blue color. No color or very pale blue color indicates a negative reaction. The intensity of the reaction is photometrically quantitated.
