Influence on serum hepatitis B virus transcripts in newborns by HBIG immunoª²blocking therapy during the later stage of pregnancy

    LI Yanª²Hong, ZHANG Wei, ZHU Shaoª²Jun, CUI Yun, GUO Yong, WANG Qingª²Tu, SU Qin, FENG Yingª²Ming

    Department of Pathology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Oncology, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710038, China, Women and Children Health Center, Weifang 261000, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the significance of viral transcripts in earlyª²stage diagnosis of HBV vertical transmission, and to observe the influence of HBIG immunoª²blocking therapy on serum HBV RNA in newborns from HBV carrier mothers. METHODS: Fortyª²six HBsAg positive pregnant women were treated with antiª²HBV immunoª²therapy (HBIG 200 IU/4 weeks and Lª²imidazole was applied as liniment 10 mg/week) since 26ª²week pregnancy. The other 23 were taken as controls without any antiª²HBV therapy. Viral nucleic acids were extracted from sera of mothers before therapy and from sera of newborns. HBV DNA and RNAs, including the fullª²length and truncated RNA molecules, were amplified respectively through PCR and RTª²PCR targeted to the HBV X proteinª²encoding region. RESULTS: Serum HBV DNA in newborns was only found when their mothers had not been treated. Circulating viral RNA was detected in more than half of the newborns irrespective of treatment of mothers. However, in the newborns of treated mothers, serum RNA was uniformly of the truncated type. CONCLUSION: Application of serum HBV RNA is greatly helpful to the diagnosis of earlyª²stage infection of newborns from HBV carrier mothers. Truncated RNA is transcribed from HBV templates in the newborns rather than being transmitted from mother to child, immunoª²blocking therapy does not interfere with intrauterine infection. However, it may interfere with the manifestion of a high replicative infection. ......