TT virus Infection among Egyptian Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

1Howayda Hassoba, 2Moushira Mahmoud, 1Hanaa Fahmy, 1Ola Leheta, 1Amal Sayed, 1Amal Fathy, 3Abdelhamid Serwah, 4Amr Abbas, 3Zohair Nooman,  3Fawzy Attia, 5Yuri Khudyakov

Departments of 1Clinical Pathology, 2Biochemistry, 3Medicine, 4Tropical Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt and 5Hepatitis Branch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) have been associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, a novel DNA virus was isolated from a patient with posttransfusion hepatitis of unknown etiology and designated TT virus (TTV). To examine whether this virus is associated with HCC, we investigated sera from 82 Egyptian patients with histopathologically-diagnosed HCC. All subjects underwent serological investigations for detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg), hepatitis B core antibody (HbcAb) and anti-HCV. Detection of TTV-DNA was performed by semi- nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using TTV-specific primers. TTV-DNA was detected in 28% of the patients. Age, gender, risk factors and biochemical liver functions did not significantly differ between TTV-DNA positive and negative patients. TTV was detected in 27.1% of patients with HCV-HCC, 25% of HBV-HCC, 66.7% of dual HCV and HBV infection and 40% of those with non-B, non-C-HCC (NBNC-HCC). It is concluded that, in this  the cohort of Egyptian patients with HCC, TTV infection is common and is not associated with HCV, HBV, NBNC-HCC, history of schistosomiasis or blood transfusion.