Hepatitis C virus quantification in serum and saliva of HCV-infected patients

• Main Authors: Gisele Barreto Lopes Menezes, Fernanda Albuquerque Pereira, César Augusto Barros Duarte, Theomira Mauadie Azevedo Carmo, Hermes Pedreira da Silva Filho, Maria Alice Zarife, Marco Aurélio Krieger, Eliana Almeida Gomes Reis, Mitermayer G Reis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2012-08-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: HCV; HCV transmission; serum HCV load; salivary HCV load
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762012000500016&lng=en&tlng=en

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be detected in blood and other bodily fluids, such as saliva, semen and gastric juices. The aim of this study was to compare the HCV viral loads in the serum and saliva of infected patients. Twenty-nine patients with detectable HCV RNA in their serum and saliva were included in this study. The HCV viral loads were determined through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions. The median viral RNA levels were 5.78 log10 copies in the serum and 3.32 log10 copies in the saliva. We observed that the salivary HCV viral load was significantly lower than the viral load in the serum. Further studies are required to understand the role of saliva in the diagnosis, management and potential transmission of HCV.