Search results for "HEPATITIS C VIRUS"
showing 10 items of 403 documents
413 Bayesian coalescent inference of hepatitis C virus introduction from molecular sequences: The camporeale model
2006
Interferon-γ inhibits replication of subgenomic and genomic hepatitis C virus RNAs
2002
Persistent infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. All treatments known so far rely on the antiviral activity of interferon alfa (IFN-alpha) that is given alone or in combination with ribavirin. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the patients clear the virus during therapy and for those who do not respond there is currently no alternative treatment. Selectable subgenomic HCV RNAs (replicons) have been recently used to investigate the effect of IFN-alpha on HCV replication. However, it has not yet been analyzed whether other cytokines also play a role in the innate immune response against HCV. Here we show th…
Detection of hepatitis C virus in paraffin-embedded liver biopsies of patients negative for viral RNA in serum
1999
The diagnosis of hepatitis C is based on serological testing for antibodies against various epitopes of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and detection of HCV RNA in serum, because anti-HCV antibodies alone cannot discriminate patients who are infectious from those who have resolved the infection. If HCV RNA is not detected, which is the case in at least 20% of enzyme immunoassay (EIA)-positive patients, diagnosis remains unclear in a state of disease possibly well suited for therapeutic intervention. Therefore, we investigated if detection of HCV antigens or HCV RNA in routinely processed, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (ffpe) liver biopsy specimens of patients positive for anti-HCV, but n…
Ethnicity and hepatitis C virus infection.
2004
Extrahepatic manifestations of hepatitis C virus infection.
2008
Hepatitis C virus may cause hepatic and extrahepatic diseases. Extrahepatic manifestations range from disorders for which a significant association with viral infection is supported by epidemiologic and pathogenetic data, to anecdotal observations without clear proof of causality. This article describes the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.
Antimitochondrial antibody -M2 positive autoimmune hepatitis during standard of care for chronic hepatitis C
2012
The current standard of care (SoC) for chronic hepatitis C, i.e. the combination of a pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN) with ribavirin (RBV), may activate underlying autoimmune conditions. Particularly, interferon (IFN) has been known to induce or exacerbate autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in hepatitis C virus patients. We describe a severe, acute-onset antimitochondrial antibody (AMA)-M2 positive AIH appearing during the last weeks of SoC in a woman with chronic hepatitis C and no previous history of autoimmunity, and resolving on protracted steroids. In this context, the relevance of the characterization of the immunoglobulin isotype of portal plasma cells for …
Methodological Issues in the Baffling Relationship Between Hepatitis C Virus and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphomas
2003
The association between Hepatitis C Virus infection and B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has been the matter of several studies: they showed disagreeing results with a marked regional variability. In this paper we present a review of the literature, highlighting methodological issues and main statistically critical aspects. Review suggests that studies were often not methodologically well approached. Moreover, we present main results from an original case-control study conducted in Italy, in an area of high endemicity of Hepatitis C Virus infection. In particular, we put attention in selection of a properly matching control group and in the role of age as a confounding variable.
An Outbreak of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Transfused Thalassemia Patients: Root Cause Analysis, Phylogenetic Epidemiology and Antiviral Therapy
2021
Background: Occurrence of HCV infection is reduced by effective risk management procedures, but patient-to-patient transmission continues to be reported in healthcare settings. We report an outbreak of 11 patients with HCV acute hepatitis (seven new infections and four re-infections) among 128 thalassemia patients followed at a Hospital in Sicily. Methods All patients with acute hepatitis and known chronic infection were tested for HCV-RNA, HCV genotyping, and NS3, NS5A and NS5B HCV-genomic regions sequencing. To identify transmission clusters we built phylogenetic trees for each gene employing Bayesian methods. Findings All patients with acute hepatitis were infected with HCV genotype 1b…
Dual therapy with peg-interferon and ribavirin in thalassemia major patients with chronic HCV infection: Is there still an indication?
2016
Background: Iron overload and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection together can lead to chronic liver damage in thalassemia major (TM) patients. Aims: We investigated viral, genetic, and disease factors influencing sustained virological response (SVR) after peg-interferon and ribavirin therapy in TM patients with HCV infection. Methods: We analyzed 230 TM patients with HCV infection (mean age 36.0 ± 6.3 years; 59.1% genotype 1; 32.2% genotype 2; 3.4% genotype 3; and 5.3% genotype 4; 28.7% carried CC allele of rs12979860 in IL28B locus; 79.6% had chronic hepatitis and 20.4% cirrhosis; 63.5% naive and 36.5% previously treated with interferon alone) treated in 14 Italian centers. Results: By mul…