BACKGROUND To address evolution of HIV-1 after transmission, we studied sequence dynamics in and outside predicted epitopes of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in subtype B HIV-1 variants that were isolated from 5 therapy-naive horizontal HLA-disparate donor-recipient pairs from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies on HIV-1 infection and AIDS. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In the first weeks after tran...

INTRODUCTION Persistence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome in individuals negative for the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) reflects occult infection. The aim of this study was to identify occult HBV infection among hemodialysis patients at 5 clinics in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, between August 2006 and August 2007. METHODS Serum samples underwent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to...

The aim of this study was to characterize the genetic variants HBV currently circulating in Republic Guinea, based on nucleotide sequences complete virus genome, and analyze clinically significant mutations Core HBsAg regions during monoinfection HBV/HIV coinfection. Materials methods. material represented by 2616 blood serum samples collected from residents Guinea. subjects were examined for p...

Background HIV-1 is capable of evading CTL immune response through mutations in residues both within the epitopes and in sequences flanking the epitopes leading to viral diversity a major obstacle for vaccine design. The present study aims at identifying the HLA-restricted CTL escape mutations primarily in the asymptomatic phase, and examining a correlation between such mutations and disease pr...

Vaccines against dengue virus (DV) are commercially nonexistent. A subunit vaccination strategy may be of value, especially if a safe viral vector acts as biologically active adjuvant. In this paper, we focus on an immunoglobulin-like, independently folded domain III (DIII) from DV 2 envelope protein (E), which contains epitopes that elicits highly specific neutralizing antibodies. We modified ...

 Abstract Background: Investigators were suspicious of tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate (YMDD) mutations occurred only in patients who were treated by lamivudine. However, YMDD mutations of hepatitis B virus gene (HBV DNA) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) untreated with antiviral medicines was reported in some studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate YMDD mutations in Ira...

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major concern for blood safety in high-prevalence HBV countries such as China. In Shenzhen, dual hepatitis surface antigen (HBsAg) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been adopted parallel with nucleic acid testing (NAT) donors over decade. A small proportion of test reactive (R) HBsAg but negative through routine NAT, whic...

Antiretroviral drug resistance and escape from CTL are major obstacles to effective control of HIV replication. To investigate the possibility of combining drug and immune-based selective pressures against HIV, we studied the effects of antiretroviral drug resistance mutations on CTL recognition of five HIV-1 Pol epitopes presented by common HLA molecules. We found that these common drug resist...

In view of the high antigenic variability of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), a vaccine against AIDS must induce an immune response to epitopes as invariable as possible among the various virus strains and clones. Previously the highly conserved six amino acid sequence Glu-Leu-Asp-Lys-Trp-Ala (ELDKWA) from gp41, defining the epitope of the human MAb 2F5, was shown to elicit HIV-1-ne...

In a pilot study, it was established that specific therapy by standard anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination may be effective in reducing HBV replication and canceling the immune tolerance to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) particles in about 50% of persons with chronic active HBV replication. In the present study, the vaccine-induced immune responses were analyzed during an ongoing cont...