Several gene fusions have been constructed in which coding sequences for antigenic regions of the pre-S sequences of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis B surface antigen, and the envelope protein of human immunodeficiency virus were linked to the 3' end of that for the first 144 residues of hepatitis B core antigen. The sequences were expressed efficiently in Escherichia coli to give stable products ...

in order to determine the efficacy of recombinant hepatitis b vaccine in iranian infants, we analyzed the efficacy of a recombinant hepatitis b vaccine in 115 infants aged 12-24 months born to hbsag negative mothers who received three doses of hbv antibody to hepatitis b surface antigen (anti-hbs) was checked after the third dose of the vaccine, 94.8% of the infants had developed protective ant...

Receptor sites for polymerized human serum albumin (pHSA) on the envelope of hepatitis B virus (hepatitis B surface antigen) and antibodies to pHSA in sera of patients with liver disease were differentiated by an indirect fluorescent antibody method. Analysis of the specificities of pHSA receptors and antibodies to pHSA by hemagglutination inhibition suggested that pHSA receptors reacted with a...

The national hepatitis B vaccination program in Taiwan is considered one of the most successful and effective public health programs to control chronic hepatitis B infection in the past 20 years. This review illustrates how to implement a successful hepatitis B vaccination program based on Taiwan's experience. Several important controlled randomized clinical trials on hepatitis B immunoglobulin...

abstract mutations have been described in all of the four open reading frames of the hepatitis b virus (hbv), however, from a clinical perspective the surface escape mutant is the most troublesome. hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag) variants may impair diagnosis, or allow the virus to escape vaccine-induced immunity or passive immunoglobulin therapy. hbv mutants with amino acid substitutions, ...

The relationship between acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB) and antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus types I and II (HTLV-I and HTLV-II), and hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus (HCV) was investigated in a multicenter case-control study. There were 431 cases enrolled in the stu...

Sera from sheep and other domestic animals contain a substance that gives a strongly positive test for antibody to hepatitis B virus surface antigen by the accepted radioimmunoassay procedure. We have purified this substance from sheep serum to near homogeneity by ion-exchange, affinity, and molecular exclusion chromatography and have identified it to be an IgM. We present evidence that this sh...