Twenty-year follow-up of an outbreak of hepatitis C in a small rural town of Argentina: The O'Brien Project.

Introduction And Objectives: In 1999, a population-based survey showed a 5.6 % (102/1832) prevalence of HCV infection in O'Brien, a small rural town of Argentina. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of screening, clinical evaluation and antiviral therapy on elimination of HCV after 20 years of follow-up.

Prevalence in the USA of rilpivirine resistance-associated mutations in clinical samples and effects on phenotypic susceptibility to rilpivirine and etravirine.

Background: The prevalence of rilpivirine resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) in the USA, and their effect on phenotypic susceptibility to rilpivirine and etravirine, was evaluated in clinical samples from HIV-1-infected patients.

Methods: In total, 15,991 samples submitted to Monogram Biosciences (South San Francisco, CA, USA) for routine resistance testing between January 2010 and June 2011 were assessed for the presence of known rilpivirine RAMs K101E/P, E138A/G/K/Q/R, V179L, Y181C/I/V, Y188L, H221Y, F227C and M230I/L; non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) RAMs K103N, L100I and L100I+K103N; and the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) RAMs M184I/V and their combinations with rilpivirine RAMs. Phenotypic susceptibility (PhenoSenseGT(®) assay; Monogram Biosciences) was evaluated, with reduced susceptibility defined as fold change (FC) in 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50)>2.

Telaprevir activity in treatment-naive patients infected hepatitis C virus genotype 4: a randomized trial.

Background: This partially blinded, randomized, phase 2a C210 study evaluated the antiviral activity of telaprevir-based regimens in treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 4 infection.

Methods: Twenty-four patients received telaprevir 750 mg every 8 hours for 15 days (T; n = 8), telaprevir in combination with pegylated interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV) for 15 days (TPR; n = 8), or Peg-IFN/RBV plus placebo for 15 days (PR; n = 8), followed by Peg-IFN/RBV for 46 or 48 weeks. The primary objective was to assess the effect of telaprevir on HCV RNA levels.

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibody in newborn infants in southern California in 2003.

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody in newborn infants in 3 counties in southern California in 2003 was found to be 2.5 per 1000 live births using dried blood spot testing. With advances in HCV antiviral therapy providing decreasing morbidity from chronic HCV infection, prenatal HCV screening to identify both mothers and at-risk infants should be reconsidered.

Viral resistance to specifically targeted antiviral therapies for hepatitis C (STAT-Cs).

Promising results have been observed with an investigational drug class for hepatitis C (HCV), the specifically targeted antiviral therapies for hepatitis C (STAT-Cs), when combined with peginterferon plus ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV). This class has the potential to increase sustained virological response (SVR) rates and reduce therapy duration in genotype 1 chronic HCV patients compared with Peg-IFN/RBV alone. However, because of the remarkable sequence variation in HCV (resulting from the high viral replication rate and intrinsically error-prone nature of HCV polymerase), variants with reduced susceptibility to STAT-Cs can occur naturally before treatment, usually at low levels, and can be selected in patients not responding to potent STAT-C treatment.

High prevalence of infection with a single hepatitis C virus genotype in a small rural community of Argentina.

Background: During the years preceding this study, we noticed a relatively unusual high number of individuals with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels in O'Brien, a small rural town in Argentina. Moreover, four individuals from this town underwent liver transplantation owing to hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced liver cirrhosis. These findings prompted us to conduct a large population-based survey to evaluate the prevalence of HCV in this community.

Two mechanisms for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 inhibition by N-terminal modifications of RANTES.

C-C chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) is the primary coreceptor for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. Native chemokines that bind to CCR5 inhibit HIV-1 infection, albeit weakly, but chemically modified chemokines inhibit infection more efficiently. We have investigated the inhibitory mechanism of three N-terminally modified RANTES variants (AOP-, NNY-, and PSC-RANTES) with the MT-2 human T-cell line stably expressing either native or mutated CCR5.

Establishment of B-cell lymphoma cell lines persistently infected with hepatitis C virus in vivo and in vitro: the apoptotic effects of virus infection.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Studies of HCV replication and pathogenesis have so far been hampered by the lack of an efficient tissue culture system for propagating HCV in vitro. Although HCV is primarily a hepatotropic virus, an increasing body of evidence suggests that HCV also replicates in extrahepatic tissues in natural infection.

Decreased recovery of replication-competent HIV-1 from peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived monocyte/macrophages of HIV-positive patients after 3 years on highly active antiretroviral therapy.

We studied the release of p24 antigen from peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived monocyte/macrophages obtained from 13 HIV-positive patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Although HIV-infected monocyte/macrophages were detected in 80% of patients after 36 months of continuous treatment, additional exposure to HAART reduced the chance of detecting HIV-releasing monocyte/macrophages. Therefore, after more than 3 years of HAART, recently infected monocytes may play a less important role as a source of emerging HIV-1 upon HAART interruption.