Perinatal transmission and infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in early childhood were observed in the offsprings of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers who had been vaccinated against HBV immediately after giving birth. This prophylaxis failure of perinatal HBV infection is likely due to the interplay of the virus and host immune response. To investigate whether the HLA polymorphism affected the outcome of the perinatal prophylaxis, HLA class I (HLA-A, B and Cw) and class II (HLA-DRB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DPB1) were typed using serology, PCR-SSOP (polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific oligonucleotide probe), and PCR-ARMS (amplification refractory modification system) methods in 22 HBeAg-positive mothers and their 10 prophylaxis-succeeded and 12 prophylaxis- failed children. The HLA types of the mothers and their children were compared with 198 HBsAg-negative healthy controls in a Korean population. HLA-B35 (relative risk=4.2, p<0.01), B51 (relative risk=3.2, p<0.02), DRB1*07 (relative risk=3.8, p<0.03), and DQA1*02 (relative risk=3.8, p<0.03) alleles were more frequent in HBeAg-positive mothers than in the controls. Also, HLA-DRB1*13 (relative risk=0.1, p<0.02) and DPB1*0401 (relative risk=0.1, p<0.02) alleles were less frequent in HBeAg-positive mothers. However, HLA alleles did not affect the outcome of the perinatal prophylaxis against HBV. These results suggest that the reported influences of some HLA alleles on the natural chronic HBV infections may not operate in the HBV infections in children received perinatal prophylaxis.
Alleles* ; Child ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B virus* ; Hepatitis B* ; Hepatitis* ; HLA-B35 Antigen ; Humans ; Mothers ; Parturition

Sera of patients visited at the Kangnam St. Mary Hospital in Seoul were collected randomly at the Department of Clinicopathology from January, 1998 to December, 2002. Specimens were collected two twice a month, in a 15-day interval, and 100 specimens were collected at a time. Specimens test in duplicate, and/or displaying antinuclear antibody reaction were excluded from the seroepidemiological analyses. Detection of antibodies to Hantaan virus, an etiologic agent of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), was done by indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) technique. Out of 11,361 sera tested, 445 cases (3.9%) showed specific antibody to Hantaan virus. Sexual difference was not noted. Annual incidence of HFRS cases showed a 3 year-periodicity. In the monthly incidence analysis, two peaks of incidence were appeared in the male cases, the first peak in March and the second in August. Female cases showed a single peak in October. The age distribution showed that 64.9% of the sero-positive cases were from 40 to 69 years of age. Peak age-group was in the 6th decade. Each decade of age-group showed diverse patterns of annual and monthly incidences. These results suggest the incidence of HFRS shows a periodicity and a unique pattern in each age group.
Age Distribution ; Antibodies ; Antibodies, Antinuclear ; Female ; Hantaan virus* ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Male ; Periodicity ; Seoul

BACKGROUND: Many types of cancer become resistant to current chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic intervention. To overcome this situation application of gene therapy by the introduction of suicide genes followed by their prodrugs may be promising. A viral enzyme, Herpes simplex thymidine kinase (HSV-tk), which converts ganciclovir from an inactive prodrug to a cytotoxic agent by phosphorylation, are being actively investigated for use in gene therapy for cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine whether combining prodrug-activating gene therapy and irradiation might result in enhanced antitumor effects. METHODS: The HSV-tk gene was cloned into the retroviral vector, pLXSN and established the clones producing retroviruses carrying the HSV-tk gene. The carcinoma cell line, HCT116 and Huh-7 were transduced with high-titer recombinant retroviruses. These cell lines were treated with ganciclovir before or after irradiation for the defining combinational effect of suicide gene therapy and radiotherapy. RESULTS: The titers of cloned PA3 17 amphotropic retroviruses ranged from 4 to 6 X 10(6) CFU/ml . After selectional periods, the expression of HSV-tk was confirmed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The growth of cells expressing HSV-tk was inhibited as increase of GCV dose after 48 hr and the growth inhibitory effect of GCV was much higher after 72 hr. When the cells transduced with HSV-tk gene were exposed to radiation, the growth inhibitory effect of GCV was significantly increased, as compared with non-transduced parental cells. CONCLUSIONS: The result s suggest that the addition of HSV-tk gene therapy to standard radiation therapy may improve the effectiveness of treatment for solid tumors.
Cell Line ; Clone Cells ; Ganciclovir* ; Genetic Therapy ; Herpes Simplex* ; Humans ; Parents ; Phosphorylation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prodrugs ; Radiotherapy ; Retroviridae ; Simplexvirus* ; Suicide ; Thymidine Kinase* ; Thymidine* ; Zidovudine

In Korea, there was a big outbreak of aseptic meningitis in 1993. Six clinical isolates of enterovirus were obtained from patients with aseptic meningitis and were identified as echovirus type 9 by serotyping with a pool of neutralizing antisera. For molecular characterization of the isolates, the nucleotide sequences of 5'-noncoding region (NCR), VP4, VP2, VP1, 2A and 2C regions of the isolates were compared with the corresponding regions of echovirus type 9 Hill and Barty strains. Unlike Hill strain, Barty strain contained a C-terminal extension to the capsid protein VP1 with an RGD (argnine-glycine-aspartic acid) motif. To determine whether similar structural features were present in our isolates, their nucleotide sequences including the VP1 region were analyzed. All isolates exhibited the VP1 extension with the RGD motif. We concluded the Korean isolates in the year of 1993 as the echovirus type 9 Barty strain although the isolates showed 15-20% nucleotide sequence differences in the several genomic regions.
5' Untranslated Regions ; Base Sequence ; Capsid/genetics ; Comparative Study ; Cysteine Endopeptidases/genetics ; Echovirus 9/genetics* ; Genome, Viral ; Human ; Meningitis, Aseptic/virology* ; Molecular Sequence Data ; RNA Helicases/genetics ; Variation (Genetics)*

Twenty isolates of Hantavirus were isolated from patients and reserovirs from 1988 to 1994 in Korea. Isolation rate was 1.9% (10/538) in patients, 6.2% (5/81) in Apodemus sp., 2.6% (1/38) in Rattus sp. and 0.6% (4/677) in bats. Reciprocal mean IFA titers ranged from 27.5 to 1,024 at the specimen collection. According to the growth rate and reaching peak titer of infectivity, the isolates were grouped as rapid, intermediate, and slow growing groups. All isolates were confirmed as Hantaan type by the nested RT-PCR on the Gl region of the M segment. Comparison of nucleotide sequence (Nt: 2101 - Nt: 2280) of the G2 region revealed that the sequence homology between Hantaan 76/118 virus and the isolates was more than 90%. Several nucleotide positions of the isolates showed high variation. The variation rate of patientisolates was about one-half when compared with that of rodentisolates. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis Hantaan viruses isolated were divided into two genogroups. These results indicate that Hantaan virus is highly dominant serotype in Korea and the virologic property and genogroup are not correlated.
Animals ; Base Sequence ; Chiroptera ; Genotype ; Hantaan virus* ; Hantavirus ; Humans ; Korea* ; Murinae ; Rats ; Sequence Homology ; Specimen Handling

No abstract available.
Alleles* ; Base Sequence* ; DNA* ; HLA-DR4 Antigen* ; HLA-DRB1 Chains*

Recently the adenomaatous polyposis coli(APC) gene, a tumor suppressor gene, was identified and the cDNA was cloned from chromosome 5q21. Allelic deletion or point mutation of tumor suppressor genes(TSGs) has been considered as an important mechanism in development of human tumor. Point mutations affecting APC gene are seen in the hereditary syndrome, adenomatous polyposis and spordic colon cancer. However, the mutation of APC gene and other TSGs have not been described in gastric cancer. In order to identify the mutation of exon 11 of APC gene for gastric cancer, we amplified DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and digested the PCR products with restriction enzyme Rsa I. We examined the DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded 44 gastric cancer tissues with lymph nodes. Eighteen(41%) among 44 were informative for the study exon 11 of the APC gene, and we found loss of heterozygosity(LOH) for APC in 6/18(33.3%). These data suggest that the point mutation or the base change of APC gene commonly occurs in gastric cancer. We conclude that the mutation of APC gene is strongly connected with development of human gastric cancer.
Humans ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Stomach Neoplasms

No abstract available.
DNA* ; Humans* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

No abstract available.
Genetic Loci* ; Loss of Heterozygosity* ; Stomach Neoplasms*

No abstract available.
Digestion* ; Exons* ; Humans* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Stomach Neoplasms*