Background & Aims: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) constitutes a substantial public health burden with ∼20 million human infections annually, including 3.3 million symptomatic cases. Appropriate treatment options for, in particular, immunocompromised patients with HEV infection and pregnant women are lacking, underscoring the urgent need for potent and safe antiviral drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
November 2024
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections are one of the most common causes of acute viral hepatitis, annually causing over 3 million symptomatic cases and 70,000 deaths worldwide. Historically, HEV was described as a hepatotropic virus, but has recently been associated with various extrahepatic manifestations including neurological disorders such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and neuralgic amyotrophy. However, the underlying pathogenesis of these neurological diseases remains largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis E is an underestimated disease, leading to estimated 20 million infections and up to 70,000 deaths annually. Infections are mostly asymptomatic, but can reach mortality rates up to 25% in pregnant women or become chronic in immunocompromised patients. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection have been associated with a range of extrahepatic manifestations, including a spectrum of neurological symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: In the absence of a hepatitis E virus (HEV)-specific antiviral treatment, sofosbuvir has recently been shown to have antiviral activity against HEV . However, a variant, A1343V, that is strongly associated with viral relapse impedes treatment success. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of variants during sofosbuvir and ribavirin treatment and assessed the sensitivity of resistance-associated variants to concurrent treatment in cell culture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Chronic HEV infections remain a serious problem in immunocompromised patients, as specifically approved antiviral drugs are unavailable. In 2020, a 24-week multicenter phase II pilot trial was carried out, evaluating the nucleotide analog sofosbuvir by treating nine chronically HEV-infected patients with sofosbuvir (Trial Number NCT03282474). During the study, antiviral therapy reduced virus RNA levels initially but did not lead to a sustained virologic response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall RNAs (sRNAs) are universal posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression and hundreds of sRNAs are frequently found in each and every bacterium. In order to coordinate cellular processes in response to ambient conditions, many sRNAs are differentially expressed. Here, we asked how these small regulators are regulated using Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a model system.
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