PURPOSE OF REVIEW Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes a large proportion of chronic liver disease worldwide. The limited efficiency of current treatments based on the use of nucleotide/nucleoside analogues or interferon-alpha requires the development of new therapeutic tools for the treatment of chronic HBV. We summarize the most recent therapeutic strategies designed to directly target HBV-infected...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The major risk factors for acute hepatitis B (AHB) in China and the viral factors determining the progression from acute to chronic hepatitis B remain largely unknown. METHODS Epidemiological studies within a population-based surveillance for AHB in adults were performed in Shanghai, China, including 294 patients, 588 matched controls and 572 family members of the patients...

BACKGROUND Many studies suggest that in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection regulate T (Treg) cells and interlukin-17-producing T help cells (Th17) are mutually antagonistic in the immune response. This study is aimed to reveal the cell differentiation environment and the significance of Treg and Th17 balance in the development of acute and chronic HBV infection. METHODS Ten patients wi...

EPIDEMIOLOGY incidence and prevalence: About 5% of the world's population has chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and nearly 25% of carriers develop chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The prevalence of chronic HBV infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals is 5%-15%; HIV/HBV coinfected individuals have a higher level of HBV replica...

conclusions the mir-155 appeared to be suppressed during hbv infection. the significantly higher mir-155 levels in alt-elevated patients infected with hbv suggest that mir-155 levels in pbmcs correlate with the immune state of patients with chronic hbv infection. results in the hbv-infected patients, the mir-155 levels were significantly lower than in the healthy controls (p = 0.001). chronic h...

introduction: hepatitis b is a potentially life-threatening infection that causes acute infection and chronic hepatitis with progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). interleukin-12 (il12) is responsible for activation of th1 immune responses, leading to possible clearance of hbv infection from the host’s body. the host’s immune-genetic background plays an important role in t...

Background: Blood transfusion plays a great role in public health and the blood safety still has remained a main concern. HBV has been considered as one of the most prevalent blood borne infections. It is estimated that chronic HBV affects 350-400 million people worldwide. Comprehensive knowledge about HBV has high importance in Iran due to high number of blood dependent patients. Material ...

Although occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in individuals without detectable hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) may occur and have been reported to be common in patients with chronic hepatitis C, the clinical relevance remains controversial. We searched for serum HBV DNA in 210 HBsAg-negative patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver disease (110 patients with chronic hepatit...

Background Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global health threat for which there an urgent need to develop novel therapeutics. Methods Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) has been demonstrated with broad-spectrum antimicrobial and antiviral activities. In this study, we implemented ATA treatment in HBV-infected HBV-transfected hepatocytes uncover whether inhibits HBV replication its und...

Globally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third highest cause of cancer-associated deaths. Although the development of HCC has been linked to exposure to various toxins or infectious agents, the majority of HCC cases are associated with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections [reviewed in (Block et al, 2003; Seeger et al, 2007)]. Worldwide, there are an...