Introduction
The hepatitis E virus (HEV) belongs to the species OrthohepevirusA within the Hepeviridae family and has a single-stranded positive-sense
RNA genome. HEV is prevalent worldwide and is considered one of the main
causes of viral acute hepatitis 1. So far, eight HEV
genotypes (gt) have been distinguished, which differ in their host
tropism and epidemiology 1. In Germany and some other
countries in Europe and North America, gt 3 in particular is endemic.
Domestic and wild pigs represent an important animal reservoir for this
genotype 1,2. The most important source of infection
for humans is the consumption of raw or insufficiently cooked meat.
Other transmission routes are direct animal contact, consumption of
water or agricultural products contaminated with manure, organ
transplants and blood transfusions 3. Under
immunosuppression, infections with gt 3 (and rarely gt 4) can become
chronic 1. In contrast, gt 1 and 2 are limited to
humans as hosts and are rarely detected in industrialized countries.
Infections with these types are considered travel-related, especially
since major outbreaks have been reported in regions with poor hygienic
conditions 1. The number of HEV infections reported
annually is steadily increasing in many industrialized countries, mainly
due to increased awareness among medical staff and the use of more
sensitive diagnostic tests 4,5.
Laboratory diagnostics play a central role in the detection of acute and
chronic HEV infections and provide information on the spread of HEV6. According to the guidelines of the European
Association for the Study of the Liver, a combination of specific
antibody and viral genome detection is recommended 7.
While HEV RNA can be detected very early in the acute course of
infection, the detection of HEV IgM and IgG antibodies provides
information on acute and convalescent infections as well as
seroprevalence. In immunocompromised patients, reverse-transcription
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based (quantitative) detection of HEV
RNA is essential, as antibodies are sometimes not measurable7.
With few exceptions, most of the available tests for the detection of
HEV antibodies are performed manually in enzyme-linked immunoassay
(ELISA) format 8. DiaSorin has recently launched a
fully automated high-throughput test for the detection of anti-HEV IgM
and IgG antibodies 9. The aim of this study was to
evaluate the performance of the new LiaisonĀ® MUREX anti-HEV IgG and IgM
assays in comparison to the established and widely usedrecom Well/recom Line HEV IgM and IgG ELISAs/immunoblots
from Mikrogen. To our knowledge, there is no data on this yet.