OBJECTIVE: To investigate chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection's effect on gestational liver function, pregnancy and delivery complications, and neonatal development. METHODS: A total of 157 HCV antibody-positive (anti-HCV[+]) and HCV RNA(+) patients (Group C) and 121 anti-HCV(+) and HCV RNA(-) patients (Group B) were included as study participants, while 142 anti-HCV(-) and HCV RNA(-) patients (Group A) were the control group. Data on biochemical indices during pregnancy, pregnancy complications, delivery-related information, and neonatal complications were also collected. RESULTS: Elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) rates in Group C during early, middle, and late pregnancy were 59.87%, 43.95%, and 42.04%, respectively-significantly higher than Groups B (26.45%, 15.70%, 10.74%) and A (23.94%, 19.01%, 6.34%) ( P < 0.05). Median ALT levels in Group C were significantly higher than in Groups A and B at all pregnancy stages ( P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in neonatal malformation rates across groups ( P > 0.05). However, neonatal jaundice incidence was significantly greater in Group C (75.16%) compared to Groups A (42.25%) and B (57.02%) ( χ ² = 33.552, P < 0.001). HCV RNA positivity during pregnancy was an independent risk factor for neonatal jaundice ( OR = 2.111, 95% CI 1.242-3.588, P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS Chronic HCV infection can affect the liver function of pregnant women, but does not increase the pregnancy or delivery complication risks. HCV RNA(+) is an independent risk factor for neonatal jaundice.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Adult ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/epidemiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Infant, Newborn ; Viremia/virology* ; Hepatitis C ; Hepacivirus/physiology* ; Hepatitis C, Chronic/virology* ; Young Adult ; Alanine Transaminase/blood*

Adult ; Cytomegalovirus ; Cytomegalovirus Infections ; complications ; Drug Hypersensitivity Syndrome ; complications ; virology ; Eosinophilia ; complications ; virology ; Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Gout ; drug therapy ; Hepatitis ; complications ; virology ; Humans ; Liver ; physiopathology ; Viremia

OBJECTIVETo develop a rapid, cost effective RT-PCR method for the mass scale diagnosis of such diseases at the viremia stage to find out the actual disease burden in that area.

METHODSFor this purpose, cases with the history of only short febrile illness were considered. Thus 157 samples with the history of dengue/chikungunya like illness and only 58 samples with a history of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) were selected.

RESULTSOut of 157 samples, 42 and 74 were detected as dengue and chikungunya, respectively and out of 58 AES cases only 23 could be detected as Japanese encephalitis by this RT-PCR method.

CONCLUSIONSThis cost effective RT-PCR method can detect the total positive cases that remain undetected by ELISA method. Moreover, this method is capable to detect the viral RNA from patients' sera even after the appearance of IgM antibody at one fifth costs as compared with the other commercially available kits.

Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; Arbovirus Infections ; diagnosis ; virology ; Arboviruses ; genetics ; Chikungunya Fever ; diagnosis ; virology ; Dengue ; diagnosis ; virology ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese ; genetics ; Encephalitis, Japanese ; diagnosis ; virology ; Fever ; diagnosis ; virology ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin M ; blood ; Mass Screening ; RNA, Viral ; blood ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; economics ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Viremia ; diagnosis ; virology

OBJECTIVEConflicting data have been generated from previous studies to determine which kind of relationship exists between HIV-1 specific CD8 Tcell responses and HIV-1 viral load or CD4 count over the course of infection. In this study, 153 HIV-1 infected LTNPs were enrolled to investigate the role of HIV-1 specific CD8 T-cell responses in chronic HIV-1 infection among HIV-1 infected former blood donors.

METHODSThe patients were stratified into three groups according to CD4 count: CD4≥500 cells/μL; 350 cells/μL≤CD4<500 cells/μL; CD4<350 cells/μL. PBMCs were isolated from the patients' anticoagulated blood samples. IL-2 and IFN-γ secretions of CD 8 T cells against 17 HIV-1 consensus B full peptide pools were analyzed by using ICS assay.

RESULTSAn overall inverse correlation were observed between CD4 count and plasma viral load. Although no significant difference was observed during the comparisons of frequency/breadth of HIV-1 specific CD8 T cell responses, CD4 count stratification analysis showed that different correlation pattern existed in three strata: as for patients whose CD4 counts were less than 350 cells/μL, no significant correlations were identified between frequency/breadth of HIV-1 specific CD8 T cell responses and CD4 count/viral load; as for patients whose CD4 counts ranged from 350 cells/μL to 500 cells/μL, significant correlation was only observed between the response breadth of IL-2+IFN-γ+ CD8 T cells and CD4 count; however, as for patients whose CD4 counts were more than 500 cells/μL, direct correlations were identified between IL-2+IFN-γ+/IL-2+/IFN-γ+ CD8 T cells and viral load or CD4 count.

CONCLUSIONSUniversal consistent inverse correlation was only indentified between CD4 count and viral load. The relationship between HIV-1 specific CD8 T cell responses and CD4 count/viral load varied in different CD4 strata, which showed that better preserved CD4 T cells were correlated with better CD8 T cell functions.

Adult ; Antigens, Viral ; immunology ; Blood Donors ; CD4 Lymphocyte Count ; CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; cytology ; CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes ; cytology ; immunology ; China ; epidemiology ; Chronic Disease ; Cohort Studies ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Flow Cytometry ; HIV Infections ; blood ; epidemiology ; immunology ; virology ; HIV-1 ; genetics ; immunology ; Humans ; Interferon-gamma ; immunology ; Interleukin-2 ; immunology ; Lymphocyte Activation ; immunology ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Viral Load ; Viremia

BACKGROUNDDespite its widespread use in the management of HIV-related cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, there have been surprisingly few reports of the use of valganciclovir (VGC) in the post-allotransplant setting. So far, no multi-center, non-crossover trial data have been available with the use of this drug as the primary pre-emptive. The present study evaluated the efficacy and safety of VGC for preemptive therapy of CMV infection after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

METHODSFrom January to April 2007, VGC was adopted in eleven centers in mainland China for pre-emptive therapy of CMV infection in consecutive patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT. Allogeneic HSCT recipients were followed weekly via CMV pp65 antigenemia assay or real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of CMV-DNA. Patients with a positive assay were treated with VGC, 900 mg P.O. twice a day for 14 days followed by 900 mg P.O. once a day for 14 days after a negative result or the CMV-DNA load was lower.

RESULTSA total of 54 patients (15 siblings, 28 mismatched related donors, 11 unrelated donors) had a positive assay treated with oral VGC. The seroconversion rate was 89% (48/54) as confirmed by a negative assay; six patients failed oral VGC. No significant toxicity was encountered. No case of CMV disease was diagnosed in the responding patients with a median follow-up of 5.3 months after the drug administration.

CONCLUSIONPre-emptive therapy of CMV viraemia with oral VGC is safe and effective in allogeneic HSCT.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Antiviral Agents ; therapeutic use ; China ; Cytomegalovirus Infections ; drug therapy ; Female ; Ganciclovir ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Viremia ; drug therapy ; virology ; Young Adult

The 23 open reading frame (ORF) 5 sequences of Korean type II porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were collected from viremic sera from the (modified live vaccine) MLV-vaccinating and non-vaccinating farms from 2007 to 2008. The samples were phylogenetically analyzed with previous ORF5 sequences, including type I Korean PRRSV, and previously reported or collected sequences from 1997 to 2008. A MN184-like subgroup of type II Korean PRRSV was newly identified in the viremic sera collected from 2007 to 2008. And of the type I PRRSVs, one subgroup had 87.2~88.9% similarity with the Lelystad virus, showing a close relationship with the 27~2003 strain of Spain. The maximum parsimony tree of type II PRRSV from 1997 to 2008 showed that they had evolved to four lineages, subgroups 1, 2, 3 and 4. Most of the recently collected type II PRRSVs belonged to subgroup 4 (48%). The region of three B-cell epitopes and two T-cell epitopes of ORF5 amino acids sequences was considerably different from the MLV in subgroups 3 and 4. In conclusion, the existence of type I PRRSV, which was genetically different from Lelystad virus (Prototype of type I PRRSV), and heterologous type II PRRSVs of viremic pigs detected even in the MLV-vaccinating farms indicated the need for new vaccine approaches for the control of PRRSV in Korea.
Animals ; Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte/immunology ; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte/immunology ; Evolution, Molecular ; Korea ; *Open Reading Frames ; Phylogeny ; Pilot Projects ; Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome/blood/genetics/immunology/*virology ; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus/*genetics/immunology ; RNA, Viral/chemistry/genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary ; Swine ; Viral Vaccines/immunology/standards ; Viremia/genetics/immunology/virology

We have shown previously that a Semliki Forest virus (SFV) replicon vectored DNA vaccine (pSFV1CS-E2) expressing the E2 glycoprotein of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) conferred full protection for pigs immunized three times with 600 microg of the vaccine. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the DNA vaccine with lower dosage and fewer inoculations. Pigs were immunized twice with 100 microg pSFV1CS-E2 (n = 5) or control plasmid pSFV1CS (n = 3), respectively. Pigs immunized with pSFV1CS-E2 developed high titers of specific neutralizing antibodies against CSFV after the booster, and the antibody titers increased rapidly upon challenge. The immunized animals showed no clinical symptoms except short-term fever and low-level viremia, whereas the control pigs immunized with the control plasmid produced no detectable antibody before challenge and showed obvious clinical signs following challenge, and 2 pigs died on 10 or 11 days post-challenge. All control animals developed extended viremia as detected by nested RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR. Severe pathologic lesions typical of CSFV infection were observed at necropsy. We conclude that the alphavirus replicon-vectored DNA-based vaccine can be potential marker vaccine against CSFV.
Animals ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; blood ; immunology ; Antibodies, Viral ; blood ; immunology ; Body Temperature ; immunology ; Classical Swine Fever ; blood ; immunology ; prevention & control ; Classical swine fever virus ; genetics ; immunology ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Immunization ; Plasmids ; genetics ; Replicon ; genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Semliki forest virus ; genetics ; Swine ; virology ; Time Factors ; Vaccines, DNA ; administration & dosage ; genetics ; immunology ; Viral Envelope Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Viremia ; genetics ; immunology

Hepacivirus ; isolation & purification ; Humans ; Leukocytes, Mononuclear ; virology ; RNA, Viral ; blood ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Viremia ; virology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of recombinant beta-defensin 2 (BD-2) on the apoptosis of pulmonary tissue in rats with sepsis.

METHODSForty-eight SD rats were randomly divided into defensin group and controls. In control group 24 rats received 10(7)PFU adenovirus via trachea intubation. In defensin group 24 rats received 10(7)PFU recombinant adenovirus carrying all expression cassette of rat BD-2 (Ad-rBD2). All rats received cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) to induce sepsis 48 h following the administration of adenovirus. Rats of both groups were sacrificed at 0, 12, 36 and 72 h after CLP; lungs were removed and fixed for Haematoxylin and Eosin (HE) stain. Apoptosis was determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique.

RESULTThe apoptosis index (AI) of lung cells increased significantly following CLP in control group,while it was significantly lower in defensin group than that of control group (P<0.05). In addition, a significant alveolar damage, interstitial edema, and infiltration of inflammatory cells were observed in control lungs, while it was less severe in defensin group.

CONCLUSIONRecombinant beta-defensin 2 may reduce the apoptosis of lung cells and attenuate lung injury.

Adenoviridae ; genetics ; growth & development ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; genetics ; physiology ; Genetic Therapy ; methods ; Genetic Vectors ; Humans ; Lung Diseases ; pathology ; therapy ; virology ; Male ; Random Allocation ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; genetics ; physiology ; Viremia ; therapy ; virology ; beta-Defensins ; genetics ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo study the incidence of viraemia and extraintestinal organ damage in children with acute rotavirus (RV) gastroenteritis.

METHODSEighty-three children with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis were hospitalized from October 2002 to March 2003, whose blood and fecal samples were obtained on admission. Rotavirus RNA (encoding the VP7 outer capsid protein) were detected in blood and fecal samples by nest reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). According to the result of blood RV-RNA, the patients were divided into RV-RNA positive group and RV-RNA negative group. The differences between these two groups in the severity of gastroenteritis and extraintestinal organ damage were analyzed.

RESULTSEighty-two of 83 stool samples from the children with rotavirus infection were positive for rotavirus RNA. Sixteen of 83 blood samples were positive for rotavirus RNA with a positive rate of 19.3%. The nucleotide sequence of cloned cDNAs, resembling part of the VP7 gene, was identical from paired blood and fecal samples. There were no significant differences between blood RV-RNA positive group and blood RV-RNA negative group in the rate and degree of fever, diarrhea, dehydration, metabolic acidosis, hypokalemia and myocardial damage (P>0.05); while the incidences of liver damage, rash, lower respiratory tract infection and the central nervous system involvement in the blood RV-RNA positive group were significantly higher than those in the blood RV-RNA negative group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONViraemia is present in the children with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis. Viraemia might be an important mechanism by which rotavirus spread to the extraintestinal sites resulting in organs damage.

Base Sequence ; Enteritis ; virology ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Myocarditis ; virology ; Pneumonia ; virology ; Prospective Studies ; Rotavirus ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Rotavirus Infections ; virology ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Viremia ; virology