Changes in epidemiological patterns of HCV infection and their impact on liver disease over the last 20 years in Greece.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relative frequency of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in Greek patients with chronic infection as well as possible secular changes in their distribution in relation to modes of transmission, age and time at acquisition of the infection and other variables. We evaluated 434 unselected patients, 241 males and 193 females with a median age of 46.2 years (18-75), with chronic HCV infection presenting during the period 1996-2000.

Blood culture results during the period 1995-2002 in a Greek tertiary care hospital.

Data on BacT/Alert blood cultures in a Greek hospital from 1995 to 2002 were analysed retrospectively. There was a gradual increase in the number of blood cultures (4981 in 1995 to 9054 in 2002), the true positive rate (14.4% to 16.

Characterization of secreted and intracellular forms of a truncated hepatitis C virus E2 protein expressed by a recombinant herpes simplex virus.

A replication-defective herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) recombinant lacking the glycoprotein H (gH)-encoding gene and expressing a truncated form of the hepatitis C (HCV) E2 glycoprotein (E2-661) was constructed and characterized. We show here that cells infected with the HSV/HCV recombinant virus efficiently express the HCV E2-661 protein. Most importantly, cellular and secreted E2-661 protein were both readily detected by the E2-conformational mAb H53 and despite the high expression levels, only limited amounts of misfolded aggregates were detected in either the cellular or secreted fractions.

Expression of immunoreactive forms of the hepatitis C NS5A protein in E. coli and their use for diagnostic assays.

In this study different forms of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5A protein, including a nearly full-length, an amino-terminal and a carboxy-terminal truncated form were produced in E. coli as fusion proteins with the MBP or the GST protein. The chimeric proteins were tested for their reactivity with sera from HCV infected patients by immunoblot and ELISA assays.

Hepatitis C virus RNA assays: a comparison of SuperQuant and Monitor.

Hepatitis C RNA testing has been used extensively to assess the efficacy of antiviral therapy and has increasingly become an integral part of clinical management of patients with chronic hepatitis C. A variety of commercially available hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA tests are used to detect HCV RNA qualitatively or quantitatively. These commercial tests have fundamental differences that are reflected on the values they generate.