Does SEN virus (SENV) infection affect the progression of chronic hepatitis C or B among Egyptian patients?

The effect of SENV infection on chronic viral hepatitis is not very clear till now. Information regarding SENV infections in the Egyptian population where hepatitis viruses are prevalent is limited to a certain extent. We aimed to determine the frequency of SENV and its genotypes H and D in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) or C (CHC) and to study its possible role in the progression of liver disease. A total of 112 patients with chronic hepatitis (18 CHB and 94 CHC) were subjected to clinical assessment, laboratory and histological examinations. DNA from sera was extracted and SENV DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. SENV DNA was detected in 28.6% of patients with chronic hepatitis (32/112). The percentage was 33.3 and 27.7% in CHB and CHC patients respectively. SENV-H was detected more frequently than SENV-D genotype. For CHC patients without cirrhosis (n=44), SENV was negative in 90.9% (40/44) compared to 9.1% (4/44) SENV positive giving a statistically significant difference (<0.001). A significantly higher percentage of patients showed twofold or more increase in the aspartate transaminase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) among SENV negative CHC patients compared to SENV positive patients (P=0.04 , 0.03 respectively). In cirrhotic patients (n=58), both the levels of ALP and serum total bilirubin were significantly higher in SENV negative compared to SENV positive patients (P values were 0.01). For CHB patients, no statistically significant difference was detected regarding any of the studied parameters. We conclude that SENV does not worsen the progression of chronic viral hepatitis. This may reflect a possible protective effect of SENV in CHC patients which needs to be emphasized by further larger studies.