Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of RNA samples extracted from blood of hepatitis C patients for quantification of viral loads

BACKGROUND

Raman spectroscopy is a promising technique to analyze the body fluids for the purpose of non-invasive disease diagnosis.

OBJECTIVES

To develop a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of HCV from blood samples.

METHODS

SERS was employed to characterize the Hepatitis C viral RNA extracted from different blood samples of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with predetermined viral loads in comparison with total RNA of healthy individuals. The SERS measurements were performed on 27 extracted RNA samples including low viral loads, medium viral loads, high viral loads and healthy/negative viral load samples. For this purpose, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were used as SERS substrates. Furthermore, multivariate data analysis technique, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) were also performed on SERS spectral data.

RESULTS

The SERS spectral features due to biochemical changes in the extracted RNA samples associated with the increasing viral loads were established which could be employed for HCV diagnostic purpose. PCA was found helpful for the differentiation between Raman spectral data of RNA extracted from hepatitis infected and healthy blood samples. PLSR model is established for the determination of viral loads in HCV positive RNA samples with 99 % accuracy.

CONCLUSION

SERS can be employed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of HCV from blood samples.

Clinical efficacy of Rong-Yang-Jyh-Gan-Tang on patients with chronic hepatitis C: A double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled crossover study

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used by the Chinese population for treatment of chronic hepatitis. However, the efficacy of TCM for patients with chronic hepatitis has not been confirmed, mostly due to the lack of available scientific parameters such as serum viral load to evaluate treatment response.

AIM OF THE STUDY

We evaluated the efficacy of Rong-Yang-Jyh-Gan-Tang (RYJGT, composed of Long-Dan-Xie-Gan-Tang, Jia-Wei-Xia-Yao-San, Dan-Shen, and Hou-Po) on patients with chronic hepatitis C.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-six patients with chronic hepatitis C who had no response to or had contraindications to interferon-ribavirin therapy were randomly allocated to receive RYJGT 15g/day or placebo for 12 weeks. After a 2-week washout period, patients were crossed over to receive placebo or RYJGT for another 12 weeks. Evaluation parameters included liver biochemistries, serum HCVRNA, side effects of RYJGT/placebo, and TCM symptoms.

RESULTS

Of the patients who had 12-week RYJGT treatment, 51.7% had decreased serum HCVRNA levels, whereas only 25.8% patients had decreased levels in the placebo group (p=0.036). TCM patterns of "Damp-Heat" and "Liver Qi Depression" had significantly improved after RYJGT treatment in comparison with the placebo. Logistic analyses showed that RYJGT treatment, and pre-treatment values of TCM symptoms of "Damp-Heat" and "Liver Qi Depression", were statistically significant factors in predicting the decrease in serum HCVRNA.

CONCLUSION

Chronic hepatitis C patients who received a 12-week RYJGT treatment had significantly higher HCVRNA decrease ratio, and improved TCM symptoms of "Damp-Heat" and "Liver Qi Depression", than those who received the placebo. Our results require further larger scale clinical trials.