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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Oct 21.
Published in final edited form as: Gastroenterology. 2011 Dec 1;142(3):634–643.e6. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2011.11.028

Table 1.

HCV RNA Viral Loads in Human Brain Tissue

Sample
ID		 Age
(y)		 Sex HIV
status		 HCV
status		 Liver pathology Cause of death Postmortem
interval (h)		 HCV RNA load (10 mg tissue)
Liver Cerebral
grey matter		 Cerebral
white matter		 Cerebellum Medulla
10034 49 Male Positive Positive Cirrhosis Pneumonia 4.5 6.1 × 108 3.8 × 104 5.4 × 103 4.7 × 103 6.4 × 103
10066 54 Female Positive Positive Cirrhosis Probable sepsis 7 1.8 × 108 — 1.7 × 102 — —
20024 62 Male Positive Positive Fibrosis Bronchiolitis, emphysema,
  aortic stenosis		 4 9.4 × 108 1.1 × 105 — — —
40007 53 Male Negative Positive Cirrhosis End-stage liver disease 11.5 9.0 × 106 4.0 × 102 8.5 × 102 — —
10016 58 Female Positive Positive Cirrhosis Extensive metastatic
  calcifications and
  congestive heart failure		 17 4.2 × 108 — — — —
10027 39 Male Positive Positive Cirrhosis Severe cachexia, HIV
  encephalitis		 4 1.4 × 109 — — — —
10086 48 Female Positive Positive Cirrhosis Pneumonia and sepsis 7.5 1.1 × 109 — — — —
20028 49 Male Positive Positive Cirrhosis Cardiac and liver failure 6 4.7 × 108 — — — —
40003 54 Male Negative Positive Cirrhosis Sepsis, pneumonitis, end-
  stage liver disease, and
  renal failure		 14.5 3.1 × 108 — — ND ND
537 44 Male Negative Positive Minimal steatosis,
  fibrosis, and
  inflammation		 Pneumonia (Pneumocystis
  carinii, cytomegalovirus)		 27 1.9 × 109 — — ND ND

NOTE. HCV RNA from matched brain and liver tissue from HCV-positive clinical samples was quantified by qRT-PCR and normalized to GAPDH. Virus was detected in the liver of all 10 subjects and in the brain tissue of 4 subjects. Viral load was approximately 1000-fold lower in the brain compared with the liver. HCV E1 sequence variation between liver and plasma was previously reported for samples 10034, 20024, 20028, and 40007.29

ND, not determined.