Ground glass hepatocytes (GGHs) are the historic hallmarks for the hepatocytes in the late and non-replicative stages of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We have identified type I and type II GGHs that contain two mutant types of large HBV surface antigens (HBsAg) with deletions over the pre-S1 and pre-S2 regions, respectively. These pre-S mutant HBVsAg accumulate in endoplasmic reticulum (ER...

BACKGROUND Escape mutations potentially allow viruses to avoid detection and clearance by the host immune system and may represent a mechanism through which infections may persist in some patients. The association of the mutations in the HBcAg gene with Hepatitis B asymptomatic carriers (ASC) has not been studied adequately. The current study was aimed to investigate HBcAg18-27 CTL epitope muta...

Qidong hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection cohort (QBC) is a prospective community-based study designed to investigate causative factors of primary liver cancer (PLC) in Qidong, China, where both PLC and HBV infection are highly endemic. Residents aged 20-65 years, living in seven townships of Qidong, were surveyed using hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) serum test and invited to participate in...

UNLABELLED Occult HBV infection is characterized by the persistence of HBV DNA in the liver of individuals negative for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg). Occult HBV may exist in the hepatocytes as a free genome, although the factors responsible for the very low viral replication and gene expression usually observed in this peculiar kind of infection are mostly unknown. Aims of this study were to inv...

Background Recent groups have shown that the immunological efficacy of vaccines could be increased by encoding targeted mutations that enhance the binding affinity between the encoded epitopes and the MHC-TCR complex. In this study, we sought to examine the anti-tumor efficacy of a DNA vaccine targeting SSX-2, a cancer-testis antigen (CTA) expressed by prostate tumors, containing mutations desi...

BACKGROUND Antibodies have a wide application in diagnosis and treatment. In order to maintain optimal stability of various functional parts of antibodies such as antigen binding sites, several approaches have been suggested. Using additives such as polysaccharides and polyols is one of the main methods in protecting antibodies against aggregation or degradation in the formulation. The aim of t...

The focus of the Children's Vaccine Initiative is to encourage the discovery of technology that will make vaccines more readily available to developing countries. Our strategy has been to genetically engineer plants so that they can be used as inexpensive alternatives to fermentation systems for production of subunit antigens. In this paper we report on the immunological response elicited in vi...

Pulchellin is a plant biotoxin categorized as type 2 ribosome-inactivating protein (RIPs) which potentially kills cells at very low concentrations. Biotoxins serve targeting immunotoxins (IT), consisting of antibodies conjugated to toxins. ITs have two independent components, human antibody and toxin with bacterial or source; therefore, they pose unique setbacks in immunogenicity. To overcome t...

BACKGROUND Although certain HBV mutations are known to affect the expression of Hepatitis e antigen, their association with HBV viral level or clinical outcomes is less clear. OBJECTIVES We evaluated associations between different mutations in the Basal Core promoter (BCP) and Pre-core (PC) regions of HBV genome and subsequent changes in HBV viral DNA level over seven years in a population of...

Objective: Our purpose was to explore the relationship between hepatitis B virus (HBV) gene heterogeneity and maternal vertical transmission. Methods: HBsAg-positive mothers and their neonates were selected and classified into a vertical infection neonate group (group N), a vertical infection mother group (group M) and a control group (group C). Serum HBsAg and HBeAg were examined. HBV gene fra...