ABSTRACT
Objective To study the degradation of hepatitis C virus(HCV) genome before and after methylene blue photochemistry(MB-P) treatment of the plasma.Methods MB was added to HCV positive plasma to a final concentration of 1.0?mol/L.The plasma was then exposed to 30000 Lux fluorescence.Plasma samples were then collected at different times of exposure.Real-time PCR was used to quantitatively study the course of the HCV-RNA degradation.The whole genome was screened for integrity by RT-PCR with 8 pairs of specific primers which targeted sequential overlapping sections of HCV genome.Results Results of real-time PCR showed that the copy number of HCV-RNA was continuously decreasing during MB-P treatment.RT-PCR results showed that the reactivity of different sections of the HCV genome to MB-P was significantly different and indicated that the 5' end and 3' end were more stable. Conclusion MB-P treatment could degrade HCV RNA with various sensitivities to different sections of the genome.RNA degradation may play an important role in plasma virus inactivation.Detection of HCV genomic RNA might be clinically useful to monitor the process and efficiency of virus inactivation.