Chronic hepatitis B is considered a major public health problem, and its treatment entails increasing health budget expenses with high-cost drugs covered by Unified National Health System. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of interferon (conventional; pegylated - PEG2a) and lamivudine (LAM) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B through a systematic review, selecting ran...

A novel hepatitis B virus (HBV) strain (W29) was isolated from serum samples in the northwest of China. Phylogenetic and distance analyses indicate that this strain is grouped with a series of distinct strains discovered in Vietnam and Laos that have been proposed to be a new genotype I. TreeOrderScan and GroupScan methods were used to study the intergenotype recombination of this special group...

To determine the prevalence of serological markers of viral hepatitis B in university students of the city of Abancay, we performed a cross-sectional study on 240 students from three universities, from January to October 2010. Informed consent was requested to every student, an epidemiological record was filled, and a venous blood sample was drawn to determine the presence of HBsAg, total anti ...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion induced by nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUC) has a prognosis that is similar to that of spontaneous HBeAg seroconversion. METHODS A total of 148 noncirrhotic NUC-induced HBeAg seroconverters were consecutively enrolled. A historical control of 407 noncirrhotic spontaneous HBeAg seroconverters was also recruited. We comp...

In continuation of our efforts toward the discovery of potent non-nucleoside hepatitis B virus (HBV) inhibitors with novel structures, we have employed bioisosterism and hybrid pharmacophore-based strategy to explore the chemically diverse space of bioactive compounds. In this article, the original thiazole platform was replaced with pyrazole scaffold to yield the optimal pharmacophore moieties...

BACKGROUND In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of the most common mutations occurring in Enhancer II (EnhII), Basal Core Promoter (BCP), Precore (PC), and Core (C) regions of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome. OBJECTIVES We also investigated the correlation between HBV variants, their genotypes, and patients' HBe antigen (HBeAg: soluble shape of the capsid antigen) status. PATIENTS AND ...

Serum samples from a total of 72 chronic hepatitis B virus carriers were analysed by serological, biochemical and molecular assays. The aim was to evaluate the relationship of the serological and biochemical parameters with molecular markers in order to assess the infectivity of virus. Out of 72 chronic HBsAg positive carriers, 28 patients were HBeAg positive and anti-HBe negative, 38 patients ...

Nine children born to HBsAg positive mothers, who became chronic HBsAg carriers with associated liver disease, were followed for five to 10 years. Five children with active hepatitis or active cirrhosis at presentation achieved complete remission within six years, while three HBeAg positive patients with minimal histological lesions remained unchanged.

BACKGROUND Early age at infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) increases the risk of chronic HBV infection. In addition early age at infection may further increase the risk of persistent viral replication beyond its effect on chronicity. The effects of perinatal and early postnatal transmission on the risk of prolonged hepatitis B e antigenaemia in children with chronic HBV infection are not we...

Entecavir is a guanosine analogue with activity against hepatitis B virus. The aim of this 4-year trial was to evaluate entecavir treatment in nucleos(t)ide-naïve HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients. Forty-nine patients received entecavir and nine of them withdrew from the trial at the end of week 96. The initial mean value of alanine aminotransferase was 79.4 +/- 41.5 IU/L, and at the ...