Guest guest Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 J Med Virol. 2011 Apr;83(4):616-21. doi: 10.1002/jmv.22010. Prevalence of and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection among blood donors in Chengdu, China. He Y, Zhang J, Zhong L, Chen X, Liu HM, Wan LK, Wang H, Li H, Tian L, Hu JL, Luo P, Wang L, Chen Y, Liu T, Liu SL, Lü WB. Department of Quality Control, Chengdu Blood Center, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Abstract The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) positivity among blood donors from Chengdu, China, and to determine risk factors associated with infection. In this study, data were collected from volunteer blood donors between July 2006 and June 2007. Anti-HCV test was performed in 119,518 donors. To identify risk factors associated with HCV infections a case-control study was conducted in 305 unique HCV-seropositive blood donors and 610 seronegative donors matched for age and sex. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using logistic regression. The population attributable risk (PAR) to risk factor was estimated according to the Bruzzi's formula. The prevalence of anti-HCV positivity was 0.53% (95% CI: 0.489-0.572%). The final multivariate model included the following independent HCV risk factors: razor sharing (OR = 29.16; 95% CI: 12.89-66.00), blood transfusion (OR = 20.84; 95% CI: 3.76-115.45), acupuncture (OR = 8.01; 95% CI: 3.16-20.30), a history of hospitalization, injections >10 years earlier, a family history of hepatitis B, dental treatment, and ear piercing. The PAR of risk factors are 68.4%, 6.3%, 14.1%, 23.1%, 29.5%, 29.3%, 38.9%, and 27.8%, respectively, and the total PAR is 98.3%. Infection with HCV among blood donors in Chengdu is associated with iatrogenic risk factors and beauty treatment-related risk. Razor sharing is an important risk factor for HCV infection. These results indicate that infection control measures in healthcare settings may reduce the burden of HCV infection and there is a need for development of effective educational programs to improve HCV knowledge among beauty culture professionals, barber cosmetologists, and the general public to avoid risk behaviors. J. Med. Virol. 83:616-621, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID: 21328375 [PubMed - in process] Related citations __________________________________________________________________________ J Med Virol. 2011 Apr;83(4):608-15. doi: 10.1002/jmv.21955. Hepatitis C virus subtypes circulating among intravenous drug users in Lisbon, Portugal. Calado RA, Rocha MR, Parreira R, Piedade J, Venenno T, Esteves A. Unidade de Virologia/Unidade de Parasitologia e Microbiologia Médicas, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Lisboa, Portugal. Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects 2-3% of the world population and intravenous drug consumption is the leading cause of transmission in industrialized countries. The unavailability of data on the molecular epidemiology of HCV infection in Portugal prompted the study of HCV subtypes circulating among intravenous drug users residing in the Lisbon metropolitan area and sampled about 10 years apart (1998-2000 and 2008-2009). Partial coding sequences for E1 and/or NS5B were obtained from 124 individuals with HCV viremia, both mono-infected and co-infected with HIV. Phylogenetic analysis showed that, for both time periods, the most prevalent subtypes were 1a and 3a, found, altogether, in 64.9% and 71.6% of the individuals, respectively for the first and the second sampling periods. However, genotype 4 viruses (subtypes 4a and 4d), introduced later, as inferred by comparison of intra-subtype genetic distances, were also relatively frequent even one decade ago (24.6%). This HCV subtype profile for Portuguese intravenous drug users is in agreement with those described for other southern European countries when in association with drug consumption. With the exception of subtype 1b, phylogenetic trees did not show clustering of the Portuguese sequences, but rather phylogenetic mixing of HCV sequences from different geographic origins, as described previously in other Western countries and suggestive of a large international transmission network. Consistent with the low recombination rates reported for HCV, only one sample revealed discordant subtypes for the two regions analyzed (4d in E1 and 4a in NS5B), representing a potential new recombinant that deserves further analysis. J. Med. Virol. 83:608-615, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID: 21328374 [PubMed - in process] Related citations ______________________________________________________________________ J Virol. 2011 Feb 23. [Epub ahead of print] TRANSCRIPTIONAL REPRESSION OF C4 COMPLEMENT BY HEPATITIS C VIRUS PROTEINS. Banerjee A, Mazumdar B, Meyer K, Di Bisceglie AM, Ray RB, Ray R. Departments of Internal Medicine, Pathology, and Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Saint Louis University, Missouri. Abstract The fourth component of human complement (C4) plays an important role in innate immune function. C4 activity has been observed to be significantly lower in chronically hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients, although the mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we have examined the mechanisms of C4 regulation by HCV. Liver biopsy specimens from chronically HCV infected patients displayed significantly lower C4 mRNA as compared to liver tissues from unrelated disease. Further, C4 mRNA levels of the two isoforms (C4A and C4B) were significantly reduced in hepatocytes transfected with RNA from HCV genotype 1a or 2a. Subsequently, a significant C4 regulatory role of HCV core or NS5A upon C4 promoter activity was observed. HCV core or NS5A transgenic mice displayed a reduction in C4 mRNA. IFN-γ induced C4 promoter activation was also impaired in the presence of HCV proteins. We further demonstrated that HCV core reduced the expression of upstream stimulating factor-1 (USF-1), a transcription factor important for basal C4 expression. On the other hand, the expression of interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1), important for IFN-γ induced C4 expression was inhibited by HCV NS5A expressing hepatocytes. These results underscore the role of HCV proteins in innate immune regulation for establishment of chronic infection. PMID: 21345967 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Related citations ________________________________________________________________________ Vaccine. 2011 Feb 18. [Epub ahead of print] Hepatitis C virus soluble E2 in combination with QuilA and CpG ODN induces neutralizing antibodies in mice. Naarding MA, Falkowska E, Xiao H, Dragic T. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Park, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. Abstract Several studies have emphasized the importance of an early, highly neutralizing antibody response in the clearance of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The envelope glycoprotein E2 is a major target for HCV neutralizing antibodies. Here, we compared antibody responses in mice immunized with native soluble E2 (sE2) from the H77 1a isolate coupled with different adjuvants or combinations of adjuvants. Adjuvanting sE2 with Freund's, monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), cytosine phosphorothioate guanine oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG ODN), or alpha-galactosylceramide (αGalCer) derivatives elicited only moderate antibody responses. In contrast, immunizations with sE2 and QuilA elicited exceptionally high anti-E2 antibody titers. Sera from these mice effectively neutralized HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) 1a entry. Moreover, the combination of QuilA and CpG ODN further enhanced neutralizing antibody titers wherein cross-neutralization of HCVpp 4 was observed. We conclude that the combination of QuilA and CpG ODN is a promising adjuvant combination that should be further explored for the development of an HCV subunit vaccine. Our work also emphasizes that the ideal combination of adjuvant and immunogen has to be determined empirically. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd. PMID: 21338680 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Related citations _____________________________________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.