Prevalence of autoantibodies in patients with hepatitis C virus infection in Oman

Background: HCV genotype patterns and HLA types in the Omani population may be unique. Subjects and Methods: Tests for 12 different autoantibodies were carried out on 50 HCV-infected patients and on 27 HCV-seronegative controls. An immunoassay for the detection of anti-HCV antibodies was performed on patient and control sera. HCV PCR was carried out on those sera which were positive for HCV antibodies. Results: All patients' sera were positive for HCV antibodies and all control sera were negative. Sixty-six percent of patients were positive for at least one autoantibody. In contrast, only 33% of the controls showed positivity for one or more autoantibodies. Conclusion: This study found a significant difference in the prevalence of autoantibodies between patients and controls, and between organ- and non-organ specific autoantibodies among the patients. A comparison with autoantibody patterns reported for HCV-infected patients in other parts of the world suggest that patterns in HCV-infected individuals in the Omani population are unique.