Hepatitis Weekly articles from July 2003

Hepatitis Weekly archives from July 2003

HCV-positive hemophiliacs get comprehensive cancer therapy with surveillance.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Hemophiliacs who undergo regular surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma, or primary liver cancer, tend to receive therapy that may ultimately reduce...

Zinc finger transcription factor defines treatment-sensitive liver cancer.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - A new study suggests the zinc finger transcription factor ZB-89, together with the tumor suppressor protein p53, helps to define those patients who are more...

Proper diagnosis and awareness of autoimmune hepatitis compels better survival.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Proper diagnosis and awareness of autoimmune hepatitis compels better survival. "Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a rare chronic disease of the liver with an excellent prognosis under medical therapy...

Interferon-alpha(2b) induction with ribavirin posts better results against HCV.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Interferon-alpha induction with ribavirin posts better results against HCV. "We aimed to compare the efficacy of interferon-alpha(2b) (IFN) induction treatment in combination with ribavirin to IFN...

Obese rats avoid the development of fatty liver with exercise.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Obese rats avoid the development of fatty liver with exercise. "The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of an exercise training program conducted concurrently with a high-fat...

Hepatitis C virus antigen drives the evolution of lymphoproliferative disease.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus antigen drives the evolution of lymphoproliferative disease. "Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major cause for non-A, non-B hepatitis. Most HCV-infected individuals do not clear the...

Pakistani injection drug users twice as likely to donate blood.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Thirty percent of injection drug users in Pakistan are paid to donate blood, which could contaminate the global blood supply and increase the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C, according to a...

A year is sufficient for most hepatitis patients to show an interferon response.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A year is sufficient for most hepatitis patients to show an interferon response. "The aim of this study was to examine whether 78 week course of interferon (IFN) retreatment could improve the...

More study of the true effects of kava on the liver is needed.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More study of the true effects of kava on the liver is needed. "Following reports of liver toxicity, including liver failure, associated with extracts from the Pacific islands plant kava (Piper...

Enzyme-specific inhibitors could knock out hepatitis C and Alzheimer disease.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Switzerland, "presenilin is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. It is thought to constitute the catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex that...

Future study of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis must include several key elements.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Future study of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis must include several key elements. "Fatty liver disease that develops in the absence of alcohol abuse is recognized increasingly as a major health...

Ribavarin and stavudine safe in patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ribavarin and stavudine can be safely combined in HIV/hepatitis C patients, although their efficacy is questionable. According to published research from France, "a randomized, open-label trial was...

Rituximab results are mixed in those with interferon-resistant cryoglobulinemia.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rituximab results are mixed in those with interferon-resistant mixed cryoglobulinemia. According to recent research published in the journal Blood, "a controlled study has been carried out to assess...

Hepatitis C virus antibody profiles differ in oral fluid and serum.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus antibody profiles differ in oral fluid and serum. According to a study from Slovenia, "antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be detected not only in serum but also in oral...

Screening for hepatitis B virus DNA doesn't worsen donor organ shortage.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Screening for hepatitis B virus DNA doesn't worsen donor organ shortage. "In order to determine the impact of screening potential organ donors for hepatitis B virus DNA using a standardized test,...

8-Hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels mark a high risk for cancer recurrence.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- 8-Hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels mark a high risk for cancer recurrence. According to recent research published in the journal Hepatology Research, "hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) frequently...

Residue substitutions make hepatitis C virus more amenable to cell culture.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Residue substitutions make hepatitis C virus more amenable to cell culture. "Efficient replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicons in cell culture is associated with specific sequences not...

Interferon can cause sarcoidosis in patients infected with hepatitis C virus.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Interferon can cause sarcoidosis in patients infected with hepatitis C virus. "Interferons have been used as therapy of both malignant and nonmalignant diseases and commonly in the treatment of...

Viral disassembly calls for the initiation of certain triggering events.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Viral disassembly calls for the initiation of certain triggering events. Triggering events may be necessary for initiating viral disassembly. According to a study from the United States, "for...

Virus-associated hepatocellular carcinomas have distinctive gene expression.
July 7, 2003... 2003 JUL 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Virus-associated hepatocellular carcinomas have distinctive gene expression. According to recent research from Japan, "using oligonucleotide microarray data of 45 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)...

Hepatitis C therapy regresses fibrosis even when viral response is elusive.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Chronic hepatitis C patients who do not have a viral response to interferon and ribavirin combination therapy may still benefit from fibrosis regression,...

Hepatitis B virus gene deletions alter outcomes for renal recipients.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can affect both graft and patient survival after organ transplantation. New data from a recent study show HBV-positive renal...

A new immunoassay presents a simple way to monitor hepatitis B virus patients.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new immunoassay presents a simple way to monitor hepatitis B virus patients. "A new enzyme immunoassay specific for hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg) was developed. In order to detect...

Eicosapentaenoic acid ameliorates ribavirin-related anemia.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eicosapentaenoic acid ameliorates ribavirin-related anemia. "One of the major side effects of ribavirin/interferon-alpha combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C is hemolytic anemia. One of the...

Transfected murine NIH/3T3 cells express the hepatitis C virus receptor CD81.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Transfected murine NIH/3T3 cells express the hepatitis C virus receptor CD81. "The human CD81 (hCD81) molecule has been identified as a putative receptor for hepatitis C virus (HCV). In this study,...

Characterization of hepatitis B conformational epitopes sheds light on affinity.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Characterization of hepatitis B conformational epitopes sheds light on binding affinity. "We have characterized a conformational epitope on capsids of hepatitis B virus (HBV) by cryo-electron...

Tree shrews could model a number of chronic and infectious human diseases.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Tree shrews could model a number of chronic and infectious human diseases. "The tree shrews are non-rodent, primate-like, small animals. There is increasing interest in using them to establish...

Codon 72 polymorphism on the p53 gene doesn't raise liver cancer risk.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Codon 72 polymorphism on the p53 gene does not raise the risk of liver cancer. According to a study from Spain, "codon 72 exon 4 polymorphism of the p53 gene has been implicated in cancer risk and...

Anti-inflammatory compound enters Phase I clinical trial.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Critical Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI), a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic products for critical care medicine, announced the initiation of a dose-escalating Phase I clinical...

Interferon causes life-threatening thrombocytopenia in a hepatitis C patient.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Interferon causes life-threatening thrombocytopenia in a hepatitis C patient. "Although mild thrombocytopenia is a common adverse effect of interferon therapy, severe life-threatening...

Study finds IFN-alpha not as effective for African Americans as Caucasians.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In some patients resistance to treatment for hepatitis C can be detected as early as the first 3 days of treatment, according to a paper recently published in Hepatology. This knowledge should...

Biopsy distinguishes simple fatty liver from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Biopsy distinguishes simple fatty liver from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is increasingly being recognized as an important and common condition, affecting...

Rare autoimmune hepatitis follows stem cell transplantation from a sibling.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rare autoimmune hepatitis follows stem cell transplantation from a sibling. According to published research from Japan, "a 7-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in second remission...

High-density lipoprotein binding rates in hepatitis C virus genotypes diverge.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- High-density lipoprotein binding rates in hepatitis C virus genotypes diverge. "The hepatitis C virus (HCV) virion is associated with lipoproteins and immunoglobulins in the sera of patients with...

TRAIL gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma calls for a stringent protocol.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- TRAIL gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma calls for a stringent protocol. According to recent research published in the journal Cancer Research, "ligands of the tumor necrosis factor family...

Insulin use leads to water retention in a patient with autoimmune hepatitis.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Insulin use leads to water retention in a patient with autoimmune hepatitis. According to recent research from Japan, "a 68-year-old female with mild diabetes mellitus was admitted because of acute...

Keratin 8 and 18 mutations heighten susceptibility to liver cancer formation.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Keratin 8 and 18 mutations heighten susceptibility to liver cancer formation. "Keratin 8 and 18 (K8/K18) mutations are found in patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis, but the role of keratin...

M6P/IGF2R expression loss, not mutation, marks hepatitis B virus-related cancer.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- M6P/IGF2R expression loss, not mutation, marks hepatitis B virus-related liver cancer. "It was reported that 60-70% of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-negative hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) had loss of...

Host elements factor into the viremia of TT virus.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Host elements factor into the viremia of transfusion transmitted virus (TT virus). According to a study from Norway, "the present study was designed to investigate how two chronically replicating...

Hepatitis C virus NS5A protein inhibits protein-1 activation through Ras-ERK.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus NS5A protein inhibits protein-1 activation through Ras-ERK. "The hepatitis C virus nonstructural 5A (NS5A) protein is a pleiotropic phosphoprotein that has been shown to associate...

Combination therapies have improved prospects for chronic hepatitis patients.
July 14, 2003... 2003 JUL 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Combination therapies have improved prospects for chronic hepatitis patients. According to recent research published in the journal Best Practice & Research in Clinical Gastroenterology, "chronic...

Markov models suggest the natural history of HCV infection can be predicted.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Markov models suggest the natural history of HCV infection can be predicted. "The Markov model was introduced to simulate natural histories of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in men and women....

Moderate amounts of alcohol exacerbate liver disease through oxidative injury.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Moderate levels of alcohol consumption can worsen liver disease in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients by generating oxidative stress. In one of the...

MELD scores don't interpret outcomes for living donor liver graft patients.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - The recipients of livers from living donors can't count on MELD scores to give them an indication about survival odds within the first year of transplantation....

An NS3 serine protease inhibitor disrupts subgenomic HCV RNA replication.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An NS3 serine protease inhibitor disrupts subgenomic HCV RNA replication. According to recent research from Canada, "The hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 protease is essential for polyprotein maturation...

Short interfering RNA knocks out hepatitis B virus replication.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Short interfering RNA knocks out hepatitis B virus replication. According to a study from Japan, "RNA interference (RNAi) is the process by which double-stranded RNA directs sequence-specific...

Interferon is suitable for chronic hepatitis C with autoimmune phenomenon.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Interferon is suitable for chronic hepatitis C patients with autoimmune phenomenon. "Of a total of 2342 patients with type-C chronic hepatitis treated with interferon (IFN) at this hospital, 3...

Study looks at how alcohol use may worsen hepatitis C infection.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Immunology researchers have demonstrated that alcohol promotes the proliferation of hepatitis C virus in human liver cells. By studying molecular mechanisms in cell cultures, the researchers help...

Hepatitis C virus takes advantage of glycoprotein and lectin interactions.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus takes advantage of glycoprotein and lectin interactions. "The hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome codes for highly mannosylated envelope proteins, which are naturally retained in the...

Gilead and Bukwang end licensing agreement for clevudine.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gilead Sciences, Inc., (GILD) announced that the company is ending its licensing agreement with Bukwang Pharm. Ind. Co., Ltd., for the development and commercialization of clevudine. Formerly...

HCV glycoprotein differences may control treatment response.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- HCV genotypes 3 and 1 glycoprotein differences may control treatment response. "Sequence variation in the envelope E1 and E2 glycoproteins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) could account for differences...

Lamivudine clears HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis in a liver cancer case.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lamivudine clears HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis in a liver cancer case. According to a case from Japan, "A 39-year-old man was diagnosed with hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis, and because...

Nanoparticles potentially useful vehicles.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Tiny cages made out of a viral protein show great promise as a way of delivering genes or drugs to the liver. The new method, described in the August 2003 issue of Nature Biotechnology, may be...

Method can predict responsiveness to treatment.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In some patients, resistance to treatment for hepatitis C can be detected as early as the first 3 days of treatment, according to a team of scientists. This knowledge should help clinicians predict the...

Pioglitazone reduces liver fat content and augments glucose uptake in diabetics.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pioglitazone reduces liver fat content and augments glucose uptake in diabetics. "The effect of pioglitazone on splanchnic glucose uptake (SGU), endogenous glucose production (EGP), and hepatic fat...

Hepatitis C infection common in Thailand vaccine volunteers.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Hepatitis C coinfection is common in male HIV patients who volunteer for vaccine research in Thailand, researchers there report. Robert Paris and...

Researchers identify clotting protein that causes hepatitis B.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A protein molecule that contributes to the severity of chronic viral hepatitis in humans, and that may also be implicated in SARS, has been identified by a team of scientists from Toronto General and...

Novel nucleoside analog active against HBV, HIV.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A novel agent shows promise for the treatment of both hepatitis B and HIV infection. According to recent research from the United States,...

Overexpression of hepatitis B virus antigens found in hamster cell line.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Overexpression of hepatitis B virus surface antigens, including the preS1 region, was found in a serum-free Chinese hamster ovary cell line. "Current hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccines consist of...

Hepatitis E virus infection may be zoonosis.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Evidence suggests that hepatitis E virus infection may be a zoonosis. "Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus with a 7.2 kb genome that is capped and polyadenylated. The virus is...

Fibroleukin at fault in viral hepatitis.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Unlike other virus-induced diseases, acute and chronic liver disease caused by the hepatitis B virus are not the result of direct viral-induced tissue destruction, but rather a consequence of the host...

Few clinicians link nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to cryptogenic cirrhosis.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Few clinicians link nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to cryptogenic cirrhosis. "Cryptogenic cirrhosis is a common cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality in the United States. Nonalcoholic...

Helicobacter hepaticus-related hepatitis doesn't always end in cancer.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Helicobacter hepaticus-related hepatitis doesn't always end in cancer. According to recent research published in the journal Infection and Immunity, "It has been reported that Helicobacter...

Unsafe glass syringes associated with HCV transmission in southern Italy.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Vaccination with the Salk polio vaccine may be the cause of hepatitis C virus transmission in southern Italy. According to published research from Italy, "Since the first studies on hepatitis C...

Promoter gene mutations in patients on lamivudine don't cause HBe antigen loss.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Promoter gene mutations in patients on lamivudine don't cause HBe antigen loss. According to a study from Japan, "Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) loss or seroconversion can occur during lamivudine...

Proofreading DNA polymerases provide a clearer picture of RNA virus diversity.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Proofreading DNA polymerases provide a clearer picture of RNA virus diversity. According to recent research from France, "RNA viruses are characterized by their high rates of genetic variation....

Identification of hepatitis C virus type 6 variants requires multiple analyses.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Identification of hepatitis C virus type 6 variants requires multiple analyses. According to published research from Thailand, "Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 6a is found frequently in Southeast...

Pyrimidine and purine analog combinations fail to suppress duck hepatitis B.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pyrimidine and purine analog combinations fail to suppress duck hepatitis B. According to a study from France, "To design new strategies of antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B, we have...

Pyrosequencing offers a quick and inexpensive way to determine HCV genotype.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pyrosequencing offers a quick and inexpensive way to determine HCV genotype. "A simple sequencing-based assay is described for genotyping of hepatitis C virus (HCV). RT-PCR was employed to amplify...

Those infected with hepatitis B virus genotypes B or C have different outcomes.
July 21, 2003... 2003 JUL 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Those infected with hepatitis B virus genotypes B or C have different outcomes. According to a study from Japan, "The factors contributing to the prognosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related...

HCV infection raises the risk for type 2 diabetes in predisposed individuals.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - A prospective study of individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has shown that hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection heightens the risk for the disease in people...

Lamivudine reduces hepatitis B virus vertical transmission risk.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Lamivudine therapy may reduce vaccination breakthrough in the infants of mothers who have high hepatitis B virus viremia. The therapy should be...

Atomic bomb survivors may have trouble clearing hepatitis B virus infections.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Atomic bomb survivors may have trouble clearing hepatitis B virus infections. "The aim of this study was to determine whether the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers increased with...

RNA interference suppresses HBV replication in cell cultures and animal liver.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- RNA interference suppresses HBV replication in cell cultures and animal liver. "Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection substantially increases the risk of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular...

Sexual transmission supercedes occupation for dental worker GBV-C infections.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sexual transmission supercedes occupation for dental worker GBV-C infections. "Healthcare workers who carry out exposure-prone procedures are theoretically at increased risk of acquiring...

LightCycler PCR assay offers a rapid way to quantify hepatitis B virus DNA.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- LightCycler PCR assay offers a rapid way to quantify hepatitis B DNA. "A highly sensitive and rapid assay has been developed to quantify hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, based on the fluorescence...

Hepatitis C virus nonstructural 5A protein attenuates interferon-linked signals.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus nonstructural 5A protein attenuates interferon-linked signals. "Alpha/beta interferons (IFN-alpha/beta) induce potent antiviral and antiproliferative responses and are used to...

Hepatitis C virus clears spontaneously upon immunosuppression discontinuation.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus clears spontaneously upon immunosuppression discontinuation. "Approximately 85% of acute cases of hepatitis C infection result in chronic hepatitis. Spontaneous clearance of...

Hepatitis C virus predominates among triple-infected patients in Taiwan.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus predominates among triple-infected patients in Taiwan. According to recent research from Taiwan, "the molecular epidemiological and clinical aspects of hepatitis D virus (HDV) in...

The molecular and serological aspects of North American HBV infections vary.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The molecular and serological aspects of North American HBV infections vary. "A few hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections are characterized by the presence of HBV DNA in serum or liver tissue, or...

Effect of immigration on epidemiology of hepatitis B in Denmark reported.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A 20-year survey shows that immigration has a small but detectable impact on the epidemiology of hepatitis B in Denmark. According to recent research from Denmark, "Implementation of hepatitis B...

Pegasys twice as effective as current standard therapy.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first study reporting on the use of Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) was published in the Journal of Viral Hepatitis. The study found that...

Alcohol increases virus in human cells.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team of National Institutes of Health-supported researchers report that alcohol increases replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human cells and, by so doing, may contribute to the rapid...

Hepatitis C virus core proteins induce pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
July 28, 2003... 2003 JUL 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hepatitis C virus core proteins induce pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. According to a study from the United States, "antiviral immunity requires recognition of viral pathogens and activation...