Strategies for antibody-mediated cancer immunotherapy, such as active immunization with virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccines, are gaining increasing attention. We developed chimeric hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg)-VLPs that display a surface epitope of the highly selective tumor-associated cell lineage marker claudin-18 isoform 2 (CLDN18.2) flanked by a mobility-increasing linker. Au...

We investigated the effects of hepatitis B virus (HBV) S/C double gene loci antisense locked nucleic acid on replication and expression of HBV in hepatitis transgenic mice. HBV mice (N = 30) were randomly divided into five groups of six mice: 5% glucose solution control, empty liposome control, single-target S, single-target C, and dual-target SC groups. An antisense locked nucleic acid fragmen...

In addition to the cap-dependent mechanism, eukaryotic initiation of translation can occur by a cap-independent mechanism which directs ribosomes to defined start codons enabled by internal ribosome entry site (IRES) elements. IRES elements from poliovirus and encephalomyocarditis virus are often used to construct bi- or oligocistronic expression vectors to co-express various genes from one mRN...

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype was determined in a total of 121 plasma samples collected in France and the US from patients chronically infected with HBV. HBV genotype A was predominant in this collection, appearing in 66 samples (54%), while genotypes B, C, D, E and F occurred in 4 (3%), 14 (12%), 23 (19%), 1 (1%) and 0 (0%) of samples, respectively. However, the genotype of a total of 1...

Human hepatitis B virus (HBV), the prototype of hepadnavirus family is a small-enveloped virus that replicates by reverse transcription within hepatocytes of an infected individual (Loeb and Ganem, 1993; Nassal and Schaller, 1993). It causes a variety of acute and chronic liver diseases including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis in human and in other higher primates such as chimpanz...

BACKGROUND Long-term treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with nucleos(t)ide analogs results in the emergence of drug-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) harboring mutations in the polymerase (P) gene. The Phyllanthus extract has anti-HBV activity; however, its antiviral activity against lamivudine (LMV)-resistant mutants has not been examined. METHODS HBV harboring LMV-resistant mutations (r...

Epidemiological studies have shown a relationship between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and development of proteinuria in some patients (most commonly children), with a predominance for male gender and histological findings of membranous nephropathy on renal biopsy. The presence of immune complexes in the kidney suggests an immune complex basis for the disease, but a direct relation between...

BACKGROUND The infection rate of hepatitis B virus is continuously increasing in Pakistan. Therefore, a comprehensive study of epidemiological data is the need of time. METHODS A total of 1300 individuals were screened for HBV infection markers including HBsAg, anti-HBsAg, HBeAg and anti-HBcAg. The association of these disease indicators was compared with patients' epidemiological characteris...

The recombinant hepatitis B virus surface (HBsAg) and core (HBcAg) virus like particles (VLPs) have the ability to serve as carriers of foreign B cell and CTL epitopes. Different approaches have been used to couple the target epitopes, like the insertion into the primary sequence of the VLP, covalent and noncovalent linkage. Particularly, the non-covalent linkage was used to develop the vaccine...

Although oxymatrine (OMT) has been shown to directly inhibit the replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in vitro, limited research has been done with this drug in vivo. In the present study, the antiviral effect of OMT was investigated in an immunocompetent mouse model of chronic HBV infection. The infection was achieved by tail vein injection of a large volume of DNA solution. OMT (2.2, 6.7 an...