Hepatitis Weekly articles from April 2000

Hepatitis Weekly archives from April 2000

New Vaccines Expected to Bolster Adult Immunization Sales.(Statistical Data Included)
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. market for vaccines totaled $2.0 billion in 1999, growing 8.6% annually from 1994, according to a recent study published by Kalorama Information, a publisher of market research. Sales are expected...

TT Virus Common in U.S. Blood Donors.(Statistical Data Included)
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers have found that exposure to TT virus, a novel, nonenveloped, single-stranded, circular DNA virus, may be common in blood donors in the United States. To investigate the prevalence of TTV in...

Ursodeoxycholic Acid Treatment Improves Liver Cells.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in Japan suggest that ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is an effective therapy for treating patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. This assertion was made in the journal Liver ("Ursodeoxycholic...

Microsatellite Instability Not Seen in Liver Cancer.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Though microsatellite instability resulting from DNA mismatch repair (MMR) may be an occurrence with some gastrointestinal cancers, this is not true with hepatocellular carcinoma, say scientists at Sapporo...

Reversibly Immortalized Hepatocytes May Increase Transplant Possibilities.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A new technique for preserving liver cells may increase the availability of hepatocytes used to sustain patients awaiting liver transplant. "Because of a critical shortage in suitable organs, many...

Valproate and Hepatitis C Virus Lead to Fatality.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Valproate therapy is used to treat seizure disorders. Researchers at the American University of Beirut report that a young child died while taking this therapy when he acquired hepatitis A from his sister. ...

Virus Seen in Italian Blood Donors.(Statistical Data Included)
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- TT virus has been found in Italian blood donors with both high and low levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT). "A novel non-enveloped DNA virus, called TT virus (TTV), has been reported to be associated...

Perihepatic Lymph Node Volume Indicates Viral Response.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Medical personnel use sonographic images of perihepatic lymph node volume to assess liver pathology. Scientists report in the American Journal of Roentgenology that these sonographic images can be used to...

Alpha-ketoacids Inhibit Viral Protease.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A report in a recent edition of the journal Biochemistry describes how certain alpha-ketoacids inhibit the hepatitis C virus NS3 protease. "The replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), an important...

Binding Protein Stimulates Viral Sites Directed by Poliovirus.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists believe that polypyrimidine-tract binding protein (PTB) stimulates the translation of picornaviral and flaviviral RNAs, according to a study published in Molecular and Cellular Biology. They...

Synthetic, Microencapsulated Peptide Vaccine Under Development.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers from the United Kingdom have evaluated in mice a novel microencapsulated peptide vaccine against hepatitis B. "A 48-amino-acids-long, synthetic peptide (S121/48) representing residues 121-167...

Sex Education Program Educates on the Impact of Adolescent Sexual Activity.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. are at epidemic proportions. According to the Robin Hood Foundation report "Kids Having Kids," in 1997, 12.7% of all babies born in the U.S....

Collaboration on Interferon Delivery System Announced.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Viragen, Inc., Plantation, Florida, and Viragen Europe Ltd. have agreed to collaborate with Biosyntech applying a protein pharmaceutical delivery system. The project will assess the potential of...

Three Zadaxin Marketing Approvals Received.
April 3, 2000... 2000 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- SciClone Pharmaceuticals, San Mateo, California, announced that Zadaxin immunotherapy has been approved for marketing in Thailand, Laos, and Malta. Zadaxin now is approved for marketing in 19 countries,...

Lipid Carrier Delivers Drug to Liver Cells.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists at Leiden University in The Netherlands have developed a novel technique whereby drug therapy for the hepatitis B virus can be delivered directly to parenchymal liver cells by a lipid carrier. ...

HBV System Has Sensitivity of PCR with Quantitation of Hybrid Testing.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in Germany reported on a hepatitis B virus detection system that has the sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction and the quantitation of hybridization tests, they say. "The laboratory...

Hepatitis G May Not Be Hepatitis at All.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Numerous studies have concluded that hepatitis G virus has no clinical course. Now a study suggests it is not a hepatitis virus at all. Researcher S.B. Slimane and colleagues from the University of...

TT Virus May Not Influence Disease Progression.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- TT virus infection does not appear to be linked to the progression to hepatocellular cancer, according to research findings from the Institut Pasteur. A small percentage of people with hepatocellular...

Diabetes Risk Associated with Hepatitis C Infection and Alcoholic Liver Disease.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis C infection or alcoholic liver disease are at increased risk for developing diabetes, according to Mayo Clinic researchers. They also reported that...

Lack of Enzyme Seen in Patients with Hepatic Dysfunction.(dehydroepiandrosterone sulphotransferase)
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study recently published in the journal Liver says that the lack of a specific enzyme, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphotransferase (DHEA ST), is common to a number of liver diseases. Study authors don't...

Passive and Active Immunoprophylaxis Pursued for Hepatitis Prevention.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. National Institutes of Health Hepatitis Viruses Section (HVS) is working on a number of vaccines for the prevention of hepatitis A, B, C, and E. Among its projects, HVS has developed candidate...

Study Looks at Hepatitis C Infection in HIV Infected and Uninfected Women.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health recently funded a State University of New York Health Science Center study of early hepatitis C...

Study Looks at Natural History and Pathogenesis of Hepatitis C in HIV Patients.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health recently funded a study that aims to understand the natural history of hepatitis C and HIV...

Agreement Signed for Potential Hepatitis B, HIV Treatment.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Vion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Vion) and Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced that they have signed a licensing agreement for Vion's novel antiviral technology, nucleoside analog (beta)-L-Fd4C, for the...

Treatment Approved for Inoperable Heptacellular Carcinoma.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- MDS Nordion, a radioisotope technology company, received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market TheraSphere, a non-surgical outpatient therapy that uses microscopic glass beads to...

GST Activity Is Better Marker than Alanine Aminotransferase Activity.(glutathione S-transferase, for quantifying reperfusion activity in liver transplantation)
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity was more helpful than alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity in quantifying reperfusion activity in liver transplantation, according to researchers in Germany. ...

Free Hepatitis C Screenings for Veterans Conducted.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- In response to growing evidence that U.S. veterans are at increased risk for hepatitis C, the American Liver Foundation, in conjunction with several Veterans Service Organizations in select cities, conducted...

Patients Sought for Hepatitis C Clinical Trials.
April 10, 2000... 2000 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com) -- Hepatitis C has struck at the heartland of America in the same ways it has hit major metropolitan areas: through blood transfusions and cesarean sections occurring before 1992, risky sex, and intravenous drug...

Treatment Normalizes ALT levels in Hepatitis C Patients.(alanine transaminase)
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), when administered to patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV), can normalize alanine transaminase (ALT) values, scientists report in the journal...

Organism Seen in Liver Disease Patients, Significance Remains Mystery.(Helicobacter hepaticus)
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Antibodies to Helicobacter hepaticus, a bile tolerant species, can be found in liver disease patients, but the relationship between this organism and liver diseases is unknown, scientists report in the journal...

Multicentric Carcinoma and Single Node Characteristics Similar.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study conducted in Japan indicates that patients with multicentric hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have approximately the same survival rates and pathological characteristics as patients with single node...

Diclofenac Study Compares Clearance in Hepatitis and Cirrhosis Patients.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study comparing diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, in hepatitis patients and alcoholic cirrhosis patients shows that alcoholic cirrhosis patients metabolize this drug differently. The study...

Hepatitis D Virus Predicts Liver Patient Morbidity and Mortality.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers report in the journal Gut that patients with hepatitis D virus (HDV) are at increased risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and may die faster when cirrhosis type B is present. The...

Combination Treatment May Be Effective in Non-Responders to Interferon.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Treating hepatitis C patients who don't respond to interferon therapy with a combination of interferon, ribavirin, and amantadine may be effective for this group. "Compared with untreated patients with...

Combination Therapy Achieves Sustained Response.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Ketoprofen combined with interferon-(alpha) 2b causes a sustained response to therapy in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to a study reported in Gut. A.E. Munoz and associates at the...

Team Finds Cell Gene That Helps Viruses Multiply.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Working with a virus introduced into a yeast, scientists have found a cellular gene that is commandeered by the virus to help it multiply. The finding, made by a team of scientists from the Howard Hughes...

Diagnosis Relies on Evaluation of Abnormal Copper Metabolism.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Presentation of patients with Wilson's disease, which results in high levels of copper in the the liver, brain, and kidneys, is variable and diagnosis of copper metabolism can be problematic. P.J. Gow and...

Hepatitis B Vaccination Rates among Canadian Practitioners Could Be Higher.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- More health care professionals in Canada should practice what they preach, suggested investigators from the University of Western Ontario in Canada at the 4(th) Decennial International Conference on Nosocomial...

Finger-Stick Device Transmits Hepatitis C Virus to Patients.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers recently reported on a cluster of patients who acquired hepatitis C virus (HCV) from a finger-stick device. Patients who became infected via this method of transmission were all treated at the...

Precautions Against Hepatitis C Crucial for Radiology Centers.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study presented at a recent conference on nosocomial infections suggests that health care workers who work in radiology wards or centers should be particularly vigilant about taking preventive precautions...

Organization Emphasizes There's No Scientific Link to Immunization.(autism)
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- The following statement was issued by the organization, Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases: [helv] The national [U.S.] parent advocacy organization, PKIDs (Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases),...

WHO Blames Lack of Governments' Support for Unsafe Blood Supply.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- The World Health Organization said on April 7, 2000, that more than half of the world's countries fail to perform full tests on donated blood, increasing the risk of spreading AIDS and other diseases. ...

Fragile Histidine Triad Gene is Altered when Cancer Present.
April 17, 2000... 2000 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study from the US National Institutes of Health proposes that the fragile Histidine triad gene (FHIT), which is a tumor suppressor gene, is infrequently expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. ...