Active clinical trials for "Hepatitis A"

In order to clarify the association between HBV mutations appearing before and during interferon therapy and the therapeutic effects, serial serum samples from 100 HBeAg-positive CHB patients undergoing peginterferon alfa-2a therapy will be collected and analyzed for the mutations of preS/S gene and BCP-preC/C region, particularly for the deletion mutations. Furthermore, Real-Time PCR will be performed to measure the ratios of wild-type HBV and deletion mutant HBV before and at the end of peginterferon alfa-2a therapy. Finally, statistical analysis will be done to elucidate whether the mutations of preS/S gene and BCP-preC/C region have any relation with the therapeutic effect of peginterferon alfa-2a.

Background: - Hepatitis B and hepatitis C can cause liver damage. They can also cause serious illness, including liver cancer, and even death. This study will follow people who have hepatitis B or hepatitis C. The purpose is to understand more about how these viruses affect the immune system over the long term (up to 10 years). The study will also compare how these viruses affect people who do and do not have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Objectives: To do a long-term study of hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection. To study the effects of hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection in people do and do not have HIV. Eligibility: - People at least 18 years of age who have hepatitis B or hepatitis C and have a regular doctor for their medical care. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. Those who do not have a regular doctor to provide medical care during the study will not be able to take part. Participants will have yearly visits with study researchers for up to 10 years. These tests will be done at each visit. Medical history and physical exam. Questionnaire (optional) on emotions, sexual behaviors, use of alcohol and drugs, and quality of life. Blood and urine tests, including HIV testing. Tissue sample collections for those who have had a liver or other tissue biopsy. Participants may leave the study at any time. They will receive the standard of care from their regular doctor throughout the study.

Viral hepatitis is a serious world health problem affecting over 1 billion people worldwide. Presently the lack of highly effective treatments results in many patients requiring liver transplantation or death. The investigators have defined the role of a unique molecule FGL2 and its receptor fc-gammaR and its role in the pathogenesis of both experimental and human hepatitis. The studies proposed in the present proposal will test the hypothesis that measuring levels of fgl2 in plasma will identify individuals that will go on to develop chronic disease and inhibition of binding of fgl2 to its receptor will allow the host with both acute and chronic disease to develop an appropriate immune response and clear the virus. The studies will provide rationale for generation of new therapies to improve the treatment of patients with acute and chronic viral hepatitis by targeting fgl2.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a prospective, three-group study that randomly assigns 700 parolees, in a community residential drug treatment program, to enter one of three groups: 1) a PCPC (Parolee Comprehensive Care + Phone Coaching Program), which includes nurse case management and specialized hepatitis education sessions and the hepatitis A/B (HAV/HBV) vaccination series (to all eligible) and coach-facilitated mentoring (mostly by cell-phone); 2) a Parolee Brief Hepatitis Education + HBV vaccination + Phone Coaching (PBCP) Program, which includes brief hepatitis/HIV education, HAV/HBV vaccination and coach-facilitated mentoring; or 3) a Usual Care (UC) control program, which includes brief general health information, one-on-one coaching and the HAV/HBV vaccine.

Hepatitis A vaccine is the most frequently used traveler's vaccine, yet data on its ability to induce protective immunity in immunosuppressed travelers are scarce. The investigators assess the hepatitis A virus (HAV) antibody response in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) - inhibitors and/or methotrexate (Mtx). In a previous study, 2 doses were not considered effective and there is therefore need for a study with an additional dose

This prospective, multi-center, observational study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) plus Copegus (ribavirin) in participants with previously untreated chronic hepatitis C, genotype 2, 3, 1 or 4, who are undergoing opioid maintenance therapy. Data will be collected from eligible participants receiving Pegasys and Copegus treatment as prescribed by treating physician and treatment-free follow-up period of 24 weeks.

The most important method to slow down and stop the liver disease progression in patients with chronic hepatitis B is antiviral therapy, by which to achieve maintaining viral response during treatment or obtain sustained viral response after treatment. The aim of the therapy with interferon is make patients obtain immune control to HBV, in clinical practice, it was expressed as HBeAg seroconversion, HBsAg loss and sustained viral response in HBeAg positive patients. However, those targets can't be get in most patients by 48 weeks of interferon treatment, and some patients need extended treatment to enhance the rate of HBeAg seroconversion and HBsAg loss. In this cohort study, the efficacies of extended therapy of interferon in HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B patients will be evaluated.

Nearly 175 million people worldwide are infected by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), close to 3% of the global population. Contrary to other chronic infections such as HIV, clearance of HCV is possible. While much is now known about the response to treatment in chronic HCV patients, the fact that acute HCV infection is typically asymptomatic (~80% of patients show no clinical signs) has made it challenging to define the mechanisms involved in spontaneous clearance. Immune protection against HCV is thought to be largely dependent upon the CD8 T cell response. Therefore using the latest T cell detection technology the investigators will develop a panel of tetramers specific for all potential HCV epitopes. To produce the tetramers the investigators will utilize HLA ligand exchange technology which allows the production of very large collections of peptide-HLA multimers for T cell staining. The investigators have already performed a large scale identification of HCVg1 and HCVg4 CD8 T cell epitopes using published viral sequences and algorithm prediction databases. Using this information the investigators are currently in the process of developing collections of peptide-HLA multimers for T cell staining. Therefore the investigators require large lymphocyte pools from HCV+ patients to test both the sensitivity and accuracy of each tetramer on the CD3+CD8+ T cells. The investigators wish to examine cells from patients infected with HCV g1 and HCV g4 to be able to test and compare the frequency of possible conserved epitopes present in both HCVg1 and HCVg4 infections. Once developed this technique will allow us to examine all virus-specific CD8 T cells present in patients with acute or chronic disease, and on smaller quantities of blood. The development of these technologies will also allow us to tailor such future diagnostic tests to local populations where a viral subspecies is prevalent; for example using North-African HLA alleles for HCVg4 epitopes. The work carried out using such assays will provide important immunological correlates of viral clearance that will impact vaccine design for HCV infections. Finally, the identification of protective CD8 T cells specific for HCV may allow new diagnostic tools with predictive powers of disease progression that can be used on any flow cytometer machine.

Animal experiments demonstrated that father might transmit HBV vertically via male germ line, however, whether it is really existed in human remains to be determined. Since HBV is a blood-borne virus, the unvaccinated pregnant women would be at risk for HBV exposure if their fetuses carried the virus from fathers. If women had been vaccinated for HBV before conception, what would happen to a maternal immune system if her fetus carried HBV from spermatozoa? However, the literature on transmission of HBV by spermatozoa in vivo is rare, the viral replicating status and fetal immune response in uterus are unknown. The aim of study was to detect father-to-fetus transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in uterus.

The investigators aim to clarify the issue of adequate duration of consolidation period of Chronic hepatitis B infection with antiviral treatment with Tenofovir which could strike a balance between durable HBeAg seroconversion and avoiding long-term inevitable serological or virological recurrence.