The uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol blocks the final step of lipopolysaccharide assembly--transfer of O antigen from undecaprenyl pyrophosphate to core lipopolysaccharide--in intact Salmonella typhimurium but not in isolated membrane fractions. The O-antigen ligase enzyme is not inhibited by dinitrophenol in vitro, and core lipopolysaccharide synthesized in the presence of uncoupler in vivo is func...

in the recent issue of middle east journal of digestive diseases, we read with great interest the article by bahari et al. 1 , “significance of response to hepatitits b vaccine in subjects with isolated antibody to hepatitis b core antigen”. we wanted to specify some important matters related to the article.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is a multifunctional protein that can interfere with the induction of an immune response. It has been reported that the HCV core protein inhibits HBV replication in vitro. In this study, we test the effect of the HCV core gene on the priming of the immune response to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and on the replication of HBV in vivo. Our results s...

An enzyme immuno assay for hepatitis C core antigen was recently developed and its performance was compared with that of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in the screening of HCV infection in patients on hemodialysis. One hundred and eleven chronic renal failure patients undergoing haemodialysis between May 2003 and October 2004 were included in the study. All the patients were tested for anti HC...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Impaired T-cell reactivity is believed to be the dominant cause of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We characterized HBV-specific T-cell responses in chronic hepatitis B surface antigen carriers who received bone marrow from HLA-identical donors with natural immunity to HBV and seroconverted to antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen. METHODS T-cell reactivity to H...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core antigen has been proposed as a surrogate marker of HCV replication. HCV core antigen detection and quantification can thus theoretically be used instead of nucleic acid testing (NAT) to diagnose infection and manage antiviral therapy, with several advantages compared to HCV RNA assays. HCV core antigen can now be easily detected and quantified by means of...