Hepatitis Weekly articles from May 2000

Hepatitis Weekly archives from May 2000

Changes in Surface Proteins Enable HCV to Evade Immune System.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other institutions have discovered a clue that begins to explain why so many patients fail to fully recover from infection with the hepatitis C...

Cholestasis Not Always Result of Hepatitis C Virus Following Surgery.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Cholestasis may occur following liver transplantation surgery, but hepatitis C virus (HCV) is not a main cause of this pathology, researchers report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. The...

Environment, Not Virology, Correlates with Albumin Adducts in the Gambia.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study of hepatocellular carcinoma patients in the Gambia has shown that environmental status rather than hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a significant factor that affects aflatoxin albumin adduct levels...

Serum Markers Could Alleviate Need for Invasive Diagnosis.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Corticosteroid therapy is used to treat cirrhotic patients who have alcoholic hepatitis and can, as a consequence, extend survival. Unfortunately, current diagnosis of this disorder requires invasive testing....

Hyaluronan Predicts Disease Severity in Patients with Cirrhosis.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study conducted by researchers in France has shown that serum hyaluronan can be used as a prognostic marker to indicate the severity of complications in patients who are asymptomatic for hepatitis C virus...

Regeneration and Tolerance Factor Correlates with HIV but not Hepatitis.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Regeneration and tolerance factor (RTF) correlates positively with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, which drives the Th2 cytokine response, but not with hepatitis C virus (HCV), which induces the...

Genetic Mutations in Core Promoter Impact Response to Interferon.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Genotype mutations in the core promoter region of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) enhance the response to interferon (IFN) therapy, scientists suggest in the journal Hepatology. A. Erhardt and colleagues at...

Travelers' Vaccines Don't Impair Immune Response to Hepatitis A Immunization, and Vice Versa.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Traveling abroad often means first traveling to the doctor to be immunized against various diseases. What is the effect of multiple vaccines on the immune response? Researchers at pharmaceutical company...

Experimental Drug May Be Effective Against Lamivudine-Resistant Hepatitis B Virus.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) announced the presentation of clinical data from an open-label study, evaluating its investigational agent adefovir dipivoxil in 23 patients with chronic hepatitis B (HBV)...

Alcohol Use and Advanced Age Associated with End-Stage Disease.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a presentation given at the recent 10(th) International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease, high alcohol use and advanced age were correlated with end-stage liver disease in a cohort...

Junior Medical Personnel at Risk for Acquiring Hepatitis C Virus.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- An ongoing cohort study being conducted by researchers at several major universities in the United States has initially found that junior medical personnel are at greater risk for acquiring hepatitis C virus...

Infection Impacts Differentiated Hepatoma Cells.(dengue virus)
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Findings from a research study reported in the Journal of Medical Virology indicate that dengue-2 virus replicates and severely infects differentiated hepatoma cells. Y.L. Lin and associates at the...

Expedited Review Granted for First PCR-Based Tests to Detect Hepatitis C Virus.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted its pre-market approval filing and has granted Roche expedited review for two hepatitis C tests designed to...

Adenoviral Vectors Deliver Potent Killer to Cancer Cells.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers at Brown University have demonstrated that adenoviral vectors can facilitate the delivery of an Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP)/fludarabine system in mice that shows...

High Telomerase Activity Correlates with Extent of Malignancy.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Telomerase activity may predict the extent of malignancy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), scientists from Japan report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. M. Shimada and associates...

Echocardiography Can Detect Intrapulmonary Arteriovenous Shunting.
May 1, 2000... 2000 MAY 1 - (NewsRx.com) -- Two-dimensional contrast-enhanced echocardiography can be used to detect intrapulmonary arteriovenous shunting (IPS), according to researchers writing in Transplantation. "Intrapulmonary arteriovenous...

Some Hepatitis C Genotypes are More Prevalent in Certain Liver Diseases.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study reported in the European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology says that certain hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes are more associated with certain types of liver diseases than others. The...

Soluble Fas Ligand Levels Change Due to Phase and Cause of Disease.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers at the Iwate Medical University in Japan have been able to show that serum levels of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) differ in hepatitis patients according to the disease stage and the cause of the...

Hospital Employees Seroconvert Faster When Jet-injector Used.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study comparing hepatitis A virus (HAV) vaccine administration with the jet-injection technique indicates that more individuals receiving jet-injection appear to seroconvert with an anti-HAV titer >= 20...

Combination Vaccine Offers Protection Equivalent to Monovalent Therapies.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to Jane Zuckerman at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, U.K., combined hepatitis A/B vaccine offers as much protection as the monovalent A and B vaccines and yields a...

Infants Receiving Hepatitis A Passive Immunity from Mothers Fall Short on Protection.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported research findings showing that infants who have the presence of passively transferred maternal anti-hepatitis A virus (PMA)...

Hypermethylation at Gene Site is Possible Cause of Liver Pathogenesis.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to John's Hopkins University Hospital researchers, hypermethylation at GSTP1, the gene that encodes for pi-class glutathione s-transferase, may contribute to the development of hepatocellular...

Maine and Georgia Governors Sign Mandatory Safety Needle Legislation.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Med-Design Corp. (MEDC), Ventura, California, reported that on April 14, 2000, Maine's Governor, Angus S. King, Jr., and on April 20, Georgia's Governor, Roy E. Barnes, signed into law legislation...

Midazolam Metabolism Not Effective as Predictor of Cyclosporine Clearance.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- Although there is a correlation between midazolam metabolism rates and the individual pharmokinetics of the immunosuppressant cyclosporine, it is not close enough to enable predictions of cyclosporine...

Aetna U.S. Healthcare's InteliHealth Allies with Harvard, Johns Hopkins Dropped.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- Consumer health information site InteliHealth will become the home of Harvard Medical School content on July 31, 2000, NewsRx.com reports. Harvard will replace Johns Hopkins as InteliHealth's primary...

In situ Split Liver Technique Can Enable One Donor to Provide Two Grafts.
May 15, 2000... 2000 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- By modifying the in situ split liver transplantation technique to leave the middle hepatic vein on the left graft, it is possible to get two functional grafts from one liver, according to a report published in...

Genome Differences Suggest Genetic Complexity of Virus.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- TT virus remains a mystery to the world of science. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that genetic complexity suggesting similar but different TT virus species is one...

Liver Dysfunction in HIV Patients Decreases Drug Metabolism Rate.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Amprenavir, a protease inhibitor used for treating patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is not completely metabolized by patients with liver diseases such as cirrhosis. As a result, Glaxo...

Antibodies to HAV Decrease after Liver Transplantation.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Recently, researchers at the Mayo Clinic reported that patients who receive liver transplants may lose their immunity to the hepatitis A virus (HAV) after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). According...

Genetic Factors Predict Progression to Chronic Liver Disease.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Certain genetic factors may predicate whether a patient with hepatitis C virus will eventually acquire chronic liver disease, say scientists at the University of Queensland's Princess Alexandra Hospital in...

VX-497 Combination Therapy More Potent than Ribavirin Combined Therapy.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- The IMP dehydrogenase inhibitor VX-497 is more effective against viruses either alone or in combination with interferon (alpha) (IFN-(alpha), than ribavirin combination therapy, scientists at Vertex...

Serum Biochemical Indicators Reflect Response to Interferon (alpha).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in Japan report that response or non-response to interferon (alpha) (IFN-(alpha)) treatment is a result of fibrolysis acceleration or fibrogenesis inhibition in patients with hepatitis C virus...

Blood Mercury Levels Higher in Preterm Infants Receiving Hepatitis B Vaccine.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- In the May 2000 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers report that hepatitis B vaccines containing thimerosal are elevating mercury levels in some preterm infants. Thimerosal is an organic...

Investigators Study Death Trends in Patients with Hepatitis and HIV.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators outlined the trends for liver disease and death in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at the 10(th) International Symposium on...

The Makings of a Public Health Epidemic: Drug Abuse, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- The confluence of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and hepatitis C is becoming a public health nightmare. HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C are moving at an alarming rate into the minority community, where the poorest and...

New Trends Predicted in Treating Hepatitis C Virus Infection.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3% of the world population is infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although the incidence of HCV infection has fallen dramatically in the developed world,...

Legal Action Initiated for Patent Infringement of Phase III Hepatitis Treatment.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commenced legal action in the European Union (EU) against Beaufour Ipsen (Beaufour) for patent infringement with respect to polyadenur as a treatment...

Man Donates Portion of Liver to Random Recipient.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Curt Bludworth fired off an unusual e-mail last year to all the major organ transplant centers in the U.S. His request: to donate part of his liver to anyone who needed it. A doctor at the University of...

Alaska Proposes Boosting Number of Immunizations for Children.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Children in Alaska day care centers and schools would be required to have as many as five more immunizations under regulations proposed by the state. The new requirement would mean a few more shots for some...

Anti-Hepatitis C Ribozyme Clinical Trials Completed.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (RPI), Boulder, Colorado, reported the completion of single dose safety trials of the anti-hepatitis C ribozyme, LY 466700. The study was conducted by development partner...

Combination Therapy for Hepatitis C Launched in Spain.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 22, 2000... 2000 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com) -- ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Costa Mesa, California, said that its licensing partner Schering-Plough Corp. has commenced sales in Spain of Rebetol (ribavirin) Capsules. Rebetol is approved for use in...

GB Virus-C/Hepatitis G Virus Defined as Lymphotropic by Researchers.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Preliminary findings of an analysis of the GB virus-C and hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), which are considered variants of the same flavivirus, show that it is primarily a lymphotropic virus, according to a...

Asian Countries Should Look to International Community for Vaccine Programs.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- A review of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination practices in Asian countries by investigators at SmithKline Beecham Biologicals shows that there is a high rate of vaccine administration in some geographical...

Bacteriophage Assay Indicates Viral Contamination in Shellfish.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- by Sonia Nichols, Staff Medical Writer -- The safety of the food we eat is an international concern. Unfortunately, despite new quality assurance standards, some food sources remain a threat to our health due...

Dendrite Cell Activity Decreases in Patients with Liver Cancer.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- New evidence from a study conducted by researchers at Aichi Medical University in Japan support the theory that reduced functioning in dendritic cells is associated with the disease progression of...

Interferon Limits Iron Deposition and Hepatic Peroxidation.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a study conducted by scientists in Japan, interferon therapy can limit the progression of chronic hepatitis (CH-C) in patients with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Study authors, led by F....

Hepatocyte Growth Factor Potentially Both Therapeutic and Dangerous.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers writing in Kidney International report that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a versatile peptide, playing roles in both organ regeneration and tumorigenesis. "Increasing evidence indicates...

Serum Measurements Predict Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Liver Disease Patients.(alpha-fetoprotein; protein induced by vitamin K absence)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Findings from a study conducted in Japan indicate that two substances found in serum can predict the advent of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) and liver cirrhosis (LC)....

Long-Term Survival Rate Improved in Responders with Hepatitis C.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Results from a study conducted in Japan show that chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients considered sustained responders or transient responders to interferon (IFN) therapy have an improved chance for...

Hepatitis B Virus Binding Protein Induced by Specific Peptide Sequence.(preS1 (21-27) peptide)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- The preS1 (21-27) peptide may be key to uptake of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) binding protein (BP) by cells during viral infection, researchers report. P. Pontisso et al. presented their findings at the...

Hepatitis C Virus Induces Interleukin-10 Production in Other Immune System Cells.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- New evidence from a study presented at the 10(th) International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease in Atlanta, Georgia, shows that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) induces H9 T helper cells to produce...

Influenza Virosomes Deliver Peptides in Hepatitis C Vaccine.(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Immunopotentiating reconstituted influenza virosomes (IRIVs) can be used as a non-live vaccine vector against hepatitis C virus (HCV), researchers in Switzerland reported. "The choice of a suitable...

Measles Infection and Two or More Younger Siblings Seem to Offer Protection.(from asthma)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Having measles before the age of three and two or more younger siblings seem to protect against asthma, finds a study in Thorax. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, investigated the...

Grant Awarded to Develop Class of Hepatitis B Drug Compounds.(Novirio Pharmaceuticals Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Novirio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the award of up to $1.1 million from the "Fast-Track" Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program which is sponsored by the U.S....

Critical Hepatitis C Funding in Jeopardy.(in Massachusetts)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- If action is not taken by the Massachusetts state Senate, a $2 million legislative appropriation to fight hepatitis C will not be included in the 2001 budget, members of the Massachusetts Hepatitis C...

Collaboration Will Develop and Market Low-Dose Oral Interferon-(alpha) for Hepatitis C.(Amarillo Biosciences Inc.; Biopharm Group International)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. (AMAR) and Biopharm Group International with corporate headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, and offices in Herndon and Reston, Virginia, jointly announced the execution of an agreement...

National Registry Creation Helps Assess Donor Risk.(for liver transplantation)(Brief Article)
May 29, 2000... 2000 MAY 29 - (NewsRx.com) -- The American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) announced it is creating a National Registry to track the growing number of living donor liver transplants, noting there still is "insufficient information...