Reactivation of hepatitis B after liver transplantation: Current knowledge, molecular mechanisms and implications in management.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a major global health problem affecting an estimated 350 million people with more than 786000 individuals dying annually due to complications, such as cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver transplantation (LT) is considered gold standard for treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver failure and HCC. However, post-transplant viral reactivation can be detrimental to allograft function, leading to poor survival.

Tissue- and Serum-Associated Biomarkers of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the world, is offering a challenge to human beings, with the current modes of treatment being a palliative approach. Lack of proper curative or preventive treatment methods encouraged extensive research around the world with an aim to detect a vaccine or therapeutic target biomolecule that could lead to development of a drug or vaccine against HCC. Biomarkers or biological disease markers have emerged as a potential tool as drug/vaccine targets, as they can accurately diagnose, predict, and even prevent the diseases.

Rifampin Resistance Mutations Are Associated with Broad Chemical Remodeling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Global control of tuberculosis has become increasingly complicated with the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis First-line treatments are anchored by two antibiotics, rifampin and isoniazid. Most rifampin resistance occurs through the acquisition of missense mutations in the rifampin resistance-determining region, an 81-base pair region encoding the rifampin binding site on the β subunit of RNA polymerase (rpoB). Although these mutations confer a survival advantage in the presence of rifampin, they may alter the normal process of transcription, thereby imposing significant fitness costs.