Identification of apolipoprotein C-III as a potential plasmatic biomarker associated with the resolution of hepatitis C virus infection

Sonia Molina (1) , Dorothée Missé (2) , Stéphane Roche (3, 4) , Stéphanie Badiou , Jean-Paul Cristol , Claude Cb Bonfils (5) , Jean-François Dierick , Francisco Veas , Thierry Levayer , Dominique Bonnefont-Rousselot (6) , Patrick Maurel (1) , Joliette Coste (1) , Chantal Fournier-Wirth (7)

1 Physiopathologie hépatique
2 MIVEGEC - Maladies infectieuses et vecteurs : écologie, génétique, évolution et contrôle
3 IGH - Institut de génétique humaine
4 CHRU Montpellier - Hôpital Saint Eloi
5 Génotypes et phénotypes tumoraux
6 Service de Biochimie Métabolique [CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière]
7 Laboratoire TransDiag

Understanding the virus-host interactions that lead to approximately 20% of patients with acute Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection to viral clearance is probably a key towards the development of more effective treatment and prevention strategies. Acute hepatitis C infection is usually asymptomatic and therefore rarely diagnosed. Nevertheless, HCV nucleic acid testing carried out on all blood donations detects donors who have resolved their HCV infection after seroconver-sion. Here we have used SELDI-TOF-MS technology to compare, at a proteomic level, plasma samples respectively from donors with HCV clearance, from donors with chronic HCV infection and from unexposed healthy donors (n = 15 per group). A candidate marker of about 9.4 kDa was detected as differentially expressed in the three groups. After purification we identified by nanoLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS this candidate marker as Apolipoprotein C-III (ApoC-III). The identification was confirmed by western blot analysis. Levels of ApoC-III were then determined in the 45 plasma samples by immunoturbidimetric assay. ApoC-III was found to be higher in donors who had resolved their HCV infection than in donors with chronic infection, results which were consistent with SELDI-TOF-MS data. ApoC-III is the first reported candidate biomarker in plasma associated with the spontaneous resolution of HCV infection.

Keywords: ApoC-III; Biomarker; HCV clearance; Plasma; SELDI-TOF

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Sonia Molina, Dorothée Missé, Stéphane Roche, Stéphanie Badiou, Jean-Paul Cristol, et al.. Identification of apolipoprotein C-III as a potential plasmatic biomarker associated with the resolution of hepatitis C virus infection. PROTEOMICS - Clinical Applications, 2008, 2 (5), pp.751 - 761. ⟨10.1002/prca.200800020⟩. ⟨hal-01662783⟩