Search results for " Antibodies"
showing 10 items of 383 documents
Clonal heterogeneity of thymic B cells from early-onset myasthenia gravis patients with antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor
2014
Myasthenia gravis (MG) with antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR-MG) is considered as a prototypic autoimmune disease. The thymus is important in the pathophysiology of the disease since thymus hyperplasia is a characteristic of early-onset AChR-MG and patients often improve after thymectomy. We hypothesized that thymic B cell and antibody repertoires of AChR-MG patients differ intrinsically from those of control individuals. Using immortalization with Epstein Barr Virus and Toll-like receptor 9 activation, we isolated and characterized monoclonal B cell lines from 5 MG patients and 8 controls. Only 2 of 570 immortalized B cell clones from MG patients produced antibodies agai…
Interaction of alcohol intake and cofactors on the risk of cirrhosis.
2010
OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the interaction between alcohol intake and cofactors [hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), body mass index] and coffee consumption on the risk of cirrhosis. DESIGN: Seven hundred and forty-nine consecutive patients with chronic liver disease referring to units for liver or alcohol diseases in Italy during a 6-months period. Teetotalers were excluded. The odds ratios (OR) for cirrhosis were evaluated using chronic hepatitis cases as the control group. RESULTS: An alcohol intake of more than 3 units/day resulted associated with the likelihood of cirrhosis both in males (OR 4.3; 95% CI=2.5-7.3) and in females (OR 5.7; 95% CI=2.3-14.5). A multiplicative int…
High risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in anti-HBe positive liver cirrhosis patients developing lamivudine resistance
2004
The emergence of drug-resistant virus in hepatitis B virus patients treated with lamivudine is well documented. However. its clinical impact in the long-term treatment of anti-HBe positive compensated cirrhotic patients is not well known. In this study, we treated 22 consecutive patients with anti-HBe compensated cirrhosis with lamivudine for a median period of 42 months. All patients responded to lamivudine, but viral breakthrough occurred in 13 patients (59%) between 9 and 42 months of therapy due to the emergence of a mutant strain. During the follow-up, 11 developed hepatocellular carcinoma. Of these, 10 occurred soon after the emergence of viral resistance, generally showing aggressive…
The burden of HBV infection in HCV patients in Italy and the risk of reactivation under DAA therapy
2019
Background: There is increasing awareness of HBV reactivation in HCV-RNA-positive/HBV-coinfected patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) treated with oral direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). Aim: To provide figures on the prevalence of HBV markers in HCV-RNA-positive subjects in Italy, where these findings are lacking. Methods: All subjects aged ≥18 years with CLD consecutively referring to Italian liver units located throughout country were prospectively enrolled in two national surveys in 2001 and 2014. Results: The total number of HCV-RNA-positive cases was 6984; 356 (5.1%) subjects vaccinated against HBV were excluded. A total of 6628 cases were evaluated. The prevalence rates of HBsAg, …
Long-term follow-up of hepatitis C virus-positive patients with persistently normal serum transaminases
2013
Material and methods. This study prospectively evaluated the progression of liver disease in a group of anti-HCV-positive patients with persistently normal ALT levels (PNALT) who were HCV-RNA positive. Patients selected for this study were those who presented with PNALT according to the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF) criteria in the year 1995/96 and underwent liver biopsy. They were divided into two groups according to their ALT evolution. Forty-five patients were included in this study. Results. After a median follow-up time of 180 months twenty-five of them maintained PNALT, but two of these developed liver cirrhosis (LC) in a mean time of 174 and 202 months, respec…
Characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italy.
1998
This study aimed to assess the main features of hepatocellular carcinoma at the time of diagnosis in Italy, particularly in relation to the presence or absence of underlying cirrhosis, hepatitis virus marker patterns, age of the subjects and alpha-foetoprotein values.A total of 1148 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma seen at 14 Italian hospitals in the 1-year period from May 1996 to May 1997 were the subjects of this prevalence study. Both newly diagnosed cases (incident cases) and cases diagnosed before May 1996 but still attending the hospitals during the study period (prevalent cases) were included.We found that 71.1% of cases were positive for hepatitis C virus antibodies but negati…
IL28B polymorphisms influence stage of fibrosis and spontaneous or interferon-induced viral clearance in thalassemia patients with hepatitis C virus …
2012
Background. Polymorphisms in the interleukin-28B are important determinants in the spontaneous and drug-induced control of hepatitis C virus infection. Design and Methods. We assessed the association of rs8099917 and rs12979860 polymorphisms with spontaneous viral clearance, severity of liver fibrosis, and response to interferon-monotherapy in 245 Thalassemia Major patients with Hepatitis C Virus infection. Results. Ninety-eight patients (40%) had a spontaneous viral clearance, while 147 patients (60%) developed a chronic infection. Spontaneous viral clearance was more frequent among patients with the T/T genotype of rs8099917 polymorphism (OR 2.130; p=0.008) or C/C genotype of rs12979860 p…
B and T cell immune responses elicited by the Comirnaty® COVID-19 vaccine in nursing home residents
2021
Objectives The immunogenicity of the Comirnaty® COVID-19 vaccine is understudied in elderly people with comorbidities. SARS-CoV-2-S-targeted antibody and T cell responses following full vaccination were assessed in nursing home residents. Methods Sixty nursing home residents (44 female; age, 53-100 years), of whom 10 had previously been diagnosed of COVID-19, and 18 healthy controls (15 female; age, 27-54 years) were recruited. Pre- and post-vaccination blood specimens were available for quantitation of total antibodies binding SARS-CoV-2 S protein and enumeration of SARS-CoV-2-S-reactive IFN-γ CD4+ and CD8+ T cells by flow cytometry. Results The seroconversion rate in presumably SARS-CoV-2…
Characterisation of a new subgroup of autoimmune chronic active hepatitis by autoantibodies against a soluble liver antigen.
1987
Autoantibodies against a soluble liver antigen (SLA) were detected in 23 patients with HBsAg-negative chronic active hepatitis (CAH) but not in 502 patients with various other hepatic and non-hepatic disorders or 165 healthy blood donors. Anti-SLA-positive serum samples were negative for antinuclear and liver-kidney-microsomal antibodies, markers of two subgroups of autoimmune-type CAH, 6 anti-SLA-positive patients were negative for all autoantibodies sought. Most of the anti-SLA-positive patients were young women (2 men, 21 women; mean age 37 years) with hypergammaglobulinaemia (mean 3.2 g/l, range 1.8-5.3 g/l); 18 of the 23 patients had received immunosuppressive treatment and all respond…
Regulation of the neutralizing anti-hepatitis B surface (HBs) antibody response in vitro in HBs vaccine recipients and patients with acute or chronic…
1996
Abstract Antibodies directed to the HBs antigen indicate viral clearance and the development of life-long immunity in patients that recovered from HBV infection. In HBs antigen vaccine recipients anti-HBs antibodies provide protective immunity. However, little is known about the regulation of this HBs-specific antibody response. The existence of anti-HBs-secreting B cells was demonstrated using the highly sensitive ELISPOT technique compared with conventional ELISA in serum and cell culture supernatants. In the peripheral blood of patients with acute self-limited hepatitis B, HBs-specific B cells were demonstrated with a high frequency despite undetectable anti-HBs serum antibodies. HBV-imm…