Hepatitis C virus infection is a persistent worldwide public health concern. The prevalence of HCV infection is much higher in patients on chronic haemodialysis (HD) than in the general population. HCV infection can detrimentally affect patients throughout the spectrum of chronic kidney disease. Despite the control of blood products, hepatitis C virus transmission is still being observed among ...

Using the Staphylococcus aureus absorption method, we have modified a commercial radioimmunoassay kit for the determination of total antibody to hepatitis B core antigen so that we can now determine the predominant globulin species of that antibody. One-hundred percent of acute hepatitis B sera had a predominance of immunoglobulin M antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, whereas immunoglobulin G...

Serological markers of hepatitis A and B virus infection were determined by radioimmunoassay in 162 university students. Antibody to hepatitis B e antigen (anti-HBe) was demonstrated in 11 of 15 students positive for both antibody to hepatitis B e antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). The presence of anti-HBc alone seemed to denote previous hepatitis B virus infec...

Acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is typically distinguished from chronic disease by a positive IgM anti-hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) test. Patients with chronic hepatitis B remain hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive, often with raised serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities, for more than six months. The presence of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and HBV-DNA correl...

The risk of hepatitis virus transmission from tranfusions has declined dramatically from that of the 1940s when posttransfusion hepatitis (PTH) was first appreciated. Introduction of hepatitis B surface antigen screening and conversion to volunteer donors for whole-blood donations in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to substantial reduction in PTH cases. However, up to 10% of the recipients c...

Four of 107 samples obtained from hepatitis C virus (HCV) carriers showed lower HCV core antigen levels in a fluorescence enzyme immunoassay (FEIA) than expected from corresponding HCV RNA levels. Nucleotide sequencing revealed a mutation in the HCV core region (Thr49Pro) that appears to have reduced the FEIA sensitivity.

Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is a worldwide problem without an effective vaccine with more than 170 million chronically infected people worldwide. DNA vaccines expressing antigenic portions of the virus with adjutants have recently been developed as a novel vaccination technology. Objectives: In the present study, a DNA vaccine expressing HCV core protein was developed with IL12 as a genetic a...

Cloning and expression of hepatitis C virus have allowed the development of immunoassays to detect hepatitis C virus infection. However, currently available recombinant fusion protein C100-3 assays, based on a nonstructural protein of the virus, are limited in sensitivity, particularly for detecting acute infection. In this report seroconversion panels showed that an assay based on synthetic pe...

Serum hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) is an important marker of hepatitis B virus replication. We describe an easy, sensitive radioimmunoassay for determination of HBcAg in detergent-treated serum pellets containing Dane particles. Components of a commercial kits for anti-core determination are used, and HBcAG is measured by competitive inhibition of binding of 125I-labeled antibodies to HBcAg...