A 3 year old boy who had chronic active hepatitis type B with features of ongoing liver damage and active virus replication, developed acute membranous glomerulonephritis two years after the clinical onset of liver disease, when both hepatitis B e antigen and antibody were detectable in serum. After withdrawal of short term steroid treatment and resolution of hepatitis B virus replication, both...

The presence of the two "large" surface proteins of hepatitis B virus (HBV), P39 and GP42 of pre-S1-hepatitis B surface antigen, was assayed in the serum of an experimentally infected chimpanzee by using antibodies to a pre-S1-specific fusion protein synthesized in Escherichia coli. The immune response to pre-S1-hepatitis B surface antigen was monitored by using the pre-S1 fusion protein as an ...

Infection with the delta agent can only occur in the context of coexistent hepatitis B virus infection. We describe a patient in whom the clinical features of acute delta hepatitis developed when seroconversion from hepatitis B surface antigen to antibody had already occurred and diagnosis of recent acute hepatitis B was based on high titre IgM antibody to hepatitis B core antigen. We discuss t...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Therapeutic vaccination is a new approach to treat patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. We have used the woodchuck model to examine the efficacy and safety of this approach. METHODS Seven woodchucks chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus were immunized with surface antigen from this virus, purified from plasma, in conjunction with a peptide named FIS...

In a small controlled study, clevudine, a potent inhibitor of hepadnaviruses, including hepatitis B virus and woodchuck hepatitis virus, suppressed hepatitis delta virus (HDV) viremia in chronically infected woodchucks. Suppression was correlated with the marked reduction of woodchuck hepatitis virus surface antigen in individual animals, consistent with the concept that repression of surface a...

BACKGROUND/AIMS To investigate serological patterns of hepatitis B based on electrochemiluminescent immunoassays and the distribution characteristics of these patterns in hospitalized children and adolescents in Zhejiang, China between 2006 and 2010. METHODS Five serological markers, including hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), antibody to hepatitis B surface ...

The goal of antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B is to prevent the development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. End points, including viral suppression, alanine aminotransferase normalization, hepatitis B e antigen loss, hepatitis B surface antigen loss, and improvement in liver histology, are used to determine treatment success. Treatment is based on hepatitis B virus (HBV) repl...