Predicting hepatitis B e Antigen seroconversion after pregnancy-The SydPregScore.

Background And Aims: Achieving Hepatitis B e antigen seroconversion (HBeAg SC) at an earlier age confers a better prognosis. We examined baseline and post-partum factors associated with HBeAg SC after pregnancy. We developed a tool, the SydPregScore, to estimate the likelihood of HBeAg SC in the years after pregnancy.

Mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B: Examining viral cut-offs, maternal HBsAg serology and infant testing.

Background & Aims: Antipartum antiviral therapy in the setting of high viral load is recommended to prevent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B although recommended viral load cut-offs vary. Quantitative HBsAg has been proposed as an alternative screening strategy to identify high viral load in this setting. Guidelines suggest testing all infants for vaccine response and infection.

Hepatitis C Virus Treatment in HIV-Coinfected Patients: No Longer Different From Monoinfection Treatment.

Between 15% and 30% of patients infected with HIV in the United States and Europe are coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and rates of acute HCV infection have been increasing in some populations of HIV-positive patients. Liver disease is now a leading cause of death in HIV-infected patients. Patients with HIV/HCV coinfection have lower rates of spontaneous acute HCV clearance, poorer response to treatment of chronic HCV in the pre-direct-acting antiviral era, more rapid progression to cirrhosis, and increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Ty1 mobilizes subtelomeric Y' elements in telomerase-negative Saccharomyces cerevisiae survivors.

When telomerase is inactivated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, telomeric DNA shortens with every cell division, and cells stop dividing after approximately 100 generations. Survivors that form in these senescent populations and resume growing have variably amplified arrays of subtelomeric Y' elements. We marked a chromosomal Y' element with the his3AI retrotransposition indicator gene and found that Y'HIS3 cDNA was incorporated into the genome at approximately 10- to 1,000-fold-higher frequencies in survivors compared to telomerase-positive strains.

Ty1 defect in proteolysis at high temperature.

Retrotransposition of the Ty1 element of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is temperature sensitive. Transposition activity of Ty1 is abolished at temperatures above 34 degrees C. In this report, we show that the major block to transposition at high temperature is the inhibition of processing of the Gag-Pol-p199 polyprotein and the concomitant reduction of reverse transcriptase (RT) activity.

A nucleocapsid functionality contained within the amino terminus of the Ty1 protease that is distinct and separable from proteolytic activity.

Ty1 is the most successful of the five endogenous yeast retrotransposons. The life cycle of Ty1 dictates that a number of nucleocapsid (NC)-facilitated events occur although the protein(s) responsible for these events has not been identified. The positioning of the NC peptide is conserved at the carboxy terminus of the Gag protein among most long terminal repeat (LTR)-containing retroelements.