Molecular genotyping of hepatitis B virus.

The development of new therapeutic agents against hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the predictable emergence of resistant mutants have highlighted the need to provide new molecular assays for optimal therapeutic management. Similarly, other variants and genotypes of HBV have now been identified that appear to have distinct clinical and pathological importance. This paper outlines the current clinical importance of HBV on a global scale, reviews the current generation of molecular genotyping assays and discusses the prospects for new assays in the near future.

Design and synthesis of ethyl pyrrolidine-5,5-trans-lactams as inhibitors of hepatitis C virus NS3/4A protease.

Using a pyrrolidine-5,5-trans-lactam template, we have designed small, neutral, mechanism-based inhibitors of hepatitis C NS3/4A protease. Compound 11a, with an alpha-ethyl P1 substituent and a Boc-valine substituent at the pyrrolidine nitrogen, has an IC(50)=30 microM.

The 5' untranslated region of GB virus B shows functional similarity to the internal ribosome entry site of hepatitis C virus.

Since its characterization in 1995, there has been increasing interest in the significance of GB virus B (GBV-B) due to its close phylogenetic relationship to hepatitis C virus (HCV). The genome of GBV-B is similar in length and organization to that of HCV and the two viruses share sequence similarity in their 5' untranslated regions (5'UTR). A secondary structure model of the GBV-B 5'UTR has been proposed by comparative sequence analysis with HCV.