Candidate Hepatitis F Virus in Sporadic Non-A, Non-B Acute Liver Failure: Exclusion in Liver of Hepatitis Viruses A, E, C and B by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis is the most common, presumed viral, cause of acute liver failure in the UK and USA. Hepatitis E, C, or B viruses have been implicated in a few cases but reports are conflicting. We determined whether HAV, HEV, HCV, or HBV were detectable in prospectively stored hepatectomies from seven British patients grafted for acute liver failure attributed to sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis. We used first- and second-round primers in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify conserved regions of HAV, HEV, and HCV, the El/S (gp35) region of HCV, and surface and core regions of HBV. False-negative results were minimized by using other fulminant livers of comparable quality as positive controls and reconstruction experiments for sensitivity (nested PCR). Our negative findings suggest that acute liver failure attributed to sporadic non- A, non-B hepatitis in the UK is most likely caused by agent/s other than HAV, HEV, HCV, or HBV.