The nuclear hormone receptors hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF4) and retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRalpha) plus peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) heterodimer support hepatitis B virus (HBV) pregenomic RNA synthesis and viral replication in nonhepatoma cells. Small heterodimer partner (SHP), an orphan nuclear hormone receptor lacking a DNA binding domain, inhibits nucle...

INTRODUCTION Prisoners are considered to be at high risk for Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) virus infections. This is attributed to intravenous drug use and high-risk sexual behaviour. There are no published studies on HBV and HCV among prison inmates or injecting drug users in Sri Lanka. OBJECTIVES To determine prevalence of HBV and HCV infections, and their relationship to injectab...

Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated RNA interference shows promise as a therapy for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but its low efficacy and hepatotoxicity pose major challenges. We have generated AAV vectors containing different promoters and a panel of HBV-specific short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) to investigate factors that contribute to the efficacy and pathogenesis of AAV-mediated ...

INTRODUCTION Accelerated liver function deterioration has been recognized in renal transplant recipients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although combination therapy with interferon plus ribavirin has been established as the standard treatment for patients with chronic HCV, the high risk of allograft rejection associated with interferon therapy has greatly discouraged the clinical use of...

PURPOSE Integration of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA into the human genome is one of the most important steps in HBV-related carcinogenesis. This study attempted to find the link between HBV DNA, the adjoining cellular sequence, and altered gene expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with integrated HBV DNA. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We examined 15 cases of HCC infected with HBV by cassette lig...

Various domains of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) are essential for the assembly and secretion of hepatitis D virus (HDV). This study investigated the influences of the levels and sequences of HBsAg of naturally occurring HBV variants on the assembly and secretion of HDV. Six hepatitis B virus (HBV)-producing plasmids (three genotype B and three genotype C) and six HBsAg expression plasmid...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of hepatitis C and D in patients of chronic hepatitis B and the treatment response of hepatitis B in such patients. STUDY DESIGN Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Civil Hospital and Lyari General Hospital, Dow University of Health Sciences, from July 2003 to June 2005. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients of hepatitis B presenting during the study ...

One of the major problems in gaining further insight into hepatitis B virus (HBV)/host-cell interactions is to improve the existing cellular models for the study of HBV replication. The first objective of this study was to improve the system based on transduction of HepG2 cells with a recombinant baculovirus to study HBV replication. A new HBV recombinant baculovirus, Bac-HBV-1.1, in which the ...

Recently, a rat pancreatic cell line (AR42J-B13) was shown to transdifferentiate to hepatocyte-like cells upon induction with dexamethasone (Dex). The aim of this study is to determine whether transdifferentiated hepatocytes can indeed function like bona fide liver cells and support replication of hepatotropic hepatitis B virus (HBV). We stably transfected AR42J-B13 cells with HBV DNA and exami...