Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a non-cytopathic hepatotropic virus that can lead to severe liver disease including acute hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Successful clearance of the virus as well as the establishment of liver disease is largely driven by a complex interaction between the virus and the host immune response. In this review, the immunological events, includ...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the disparity in incidence of hepatitis B between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Australia, and to estimate the potential impact of a hepatitis B immunization programme targeting non-immune indigenous adults. METHODS Using national data on persons with newly acquired hepatitis B disease notified between 2005 and 2012, we estimated incident infection rates and ra...

Background & Objectives: Hepatitis B is one of the major health problems in the world. Health care workers (HCWs) are at high risk of acquiring hepatitis B virus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of HBV infection and the immune response to HBV vaccine among the HCWs in Babol, northern...

Acquired aplastic anemia (aAA) is a severe and rare disease, characterized by hematopoietic bone marrow failure and peripheral cytopenia. The pathophysiology is immune mediated in most cases, activated T1 lymphocytes have been identified as effector cells. The disease can be successfully treated with combined immunosuppressive therapy or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Hepat...

Backgrounds: Most of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections elicit poor immune responses and 75% to 85% of cases become chronic therefore, the development of an effective vaccine against HCV is of paramount importance. In this study, we aimed to evaluate co-administration of HCV non-Structural Protein 2 and IL-12 DNA vaccines in C57BL/6 mice. Methods: A plasmid encoding full-length HCV NS2 prot...

Severe hepatitis due to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in immunocompetent patients is a very rare event. The acute hepatitis may lead to fulminant deterioration of liver function and can be rapidly fatal. The diagnosis should be considered in case of severe hepatitis of unknown cause. Early consideration of HSV-1 hepatitis in the differential diagnosis in an adult patient, also with an app...

Combination antiviral drug therapy improves the survival rates of patients chronically infected with hepatitis B virus by controlling viral replication and enhancing immune responses. Some of these drugs have side effects that make them unsuitable for long-term administration. To address the trade-off between the positive and negative effects of the combination therapy, we investigated an optim...

Since the identification of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) 20 years ago, much progress has been made in our understanding of its life cycle and interaction with the host immune system. Much has been learned from HCV itself, which, via decades of coevolution, gained an intricate knowledge of host innate and adaptive immune responses and developed sophisticated ways to preempt, subvert, and antagoni...

Post-transplant hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence prophylaxis is a sine qua non of liver transplantation for HBV-related liver disease because of high rate and aggressive course of HBV recurrence. Hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) is a polyclonal immune globulin solution obtained from plasma, donated by individuals with high titres of anti-HBs (hepatitis B antibody). Although it was being use...