High frequency of anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies in chronic hepatitis C

Background and study aim: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) antibodies (ASCA) are frequently reported in autoimmune diseases but rarely in viral infections. We aimed to determine the frequency of ASCA in adult patients with CHC.

Patients and methods: Eighty-eight patients with CHC and 160 healthy blood donors were included in this study. ASCA-IgG and IgA levels were determined using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. For statistical analysis, we used open EPI version 3 as software. Correlations were determined by Spearman's test using IBM® SPSS® Statistics.

Results: ASCA (IgG or IgA) were present in 31.8 % of patients and in 3.7 % of controls (p < 10^-6). ASCA-IgG and ASCA-IgA were more frequent in patients with CHC than in healthy subjects (23.9 % vs. 3.1 %; p < 10^-5 and 9.1 % vs. 0.6 %; p = 0.002, respectively). In patients, mean levels of ASCA-IgG and IgA were significantly higher than in controls (9.95 ± 11.78 U/mL vs. 2.28 ± 2.86 U/mL, p < 10^-6 and 5.96 ± 7.69 U/mL vs. 0.56 ± 0.12 U/mL, p < 10^-6; respectively). In patients with CHC, the mean level of ASCA-IgG was significantly higher than that of ASCA-IgA (9.95 ± 11.78 U/mL vs. 5.96 ± 7.69 U/mL, p = 0.008).

Conclusion: The frequency of ASCA was significantly higher in patients with CHC than in healthy controls.