Drug-resistant and immune-escape hepatitis B virus mutants, occult hepatitis B infection and coinfections in public hospital patients from Argentina.

Argentina exhibits low serological prevalence for Hepatitis B virus (HBV); however, occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) has been reported in blood donors, Amerindians and individuals coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and/or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The aim of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity of HBV and to evaluate serological marker associations and coinfections with HCV and HIV in patients attending and treated in a public hospital in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A total of 189 HBV reactive samples (HBsAg and/or anti-HBc) were analyzed for HBV DNA characterization.

F127 poloxamer effect on cytotoxicity induction of tumour cell cultures treated with doxorubicin.

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common liver malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. One crucial limitation in the pharmacotherapy for this tumour is its chemotherapy-resistant nature produced by the overexpression of several members of the ATP-binding cassette protein family that efflux drugs out of cells, as observed with the breast cancer resistant protein (BCRP).

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the ability of Pluronic F127 to reverse the multidrug resistance phenotype in two human hepatocellular cell lines.

Effect of several PEO-PPO amphiphiles on bax, bcl-2, and hTERT mRNAs: An insight into apoptosis and cell immortalization induced in hepatoma cells by these polymeric excipients.

Unlabelled: Recent data have shown that synthetic polymers and nanomaterials display phenotypic effects in cells and signal transduction mechanisms involved in inflammation, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis.

Aim: This article aims to investigate the effect of poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide) (PEO-PPO) block copolymers with a wide range of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications on apoptosis and/or cell immortalization, by flow cytometry and multiplex RT-PCR for bax, bcl-2, and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT).

Results: PEO-PPO amphiphiles upregulated bax and hTERT and induced apoptosis of two human hepatoma cell lines.

Hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus in blood donors from Argentina: circulation of HBsAg and reverse transcriptase mutants.

In Argentina, current procedures to ensure the safety of the blood supply for transfusion include the serologic detection of specific blood-borne infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and the genetic diversity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV) in blood donor populations from two distantly located Argentine regions. Data from 56,983 blood donations from the Favaloro Foundation, in the city of Buenos Aires (Central Region), and the Central Blood Bank of Misiones Province (Northeast Region) were analyzed.

Intrahost evolution of HBe antigen-negative hepatitis B virus genomes ascribed to the F genotype: a longitudinal 3 year retrospective study.

The intrahost hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomic evolution process of an HBe antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic HBV patient (designated RI) was studied. Two nearly full-length direct sequences obtained in 1995 (RI95) and 1998 (RI98) showed: (a) a mutation rate of 2.7x10(-3) nucleotides per site per year; (b) nucleotide changes mainly located at single coding regions (P=0.

Design, development and evaluation of a competitive RT-PCR for quantitation of GBV-C RNA.

Although GB virus C (GBV-C) hepatocyte pathogenicity is still controversial, it appears that at least some strains of this virus are lymphotropic. During the past few years, several reports have documented an apparently beneficial role played by GBV-C in the course of HIV-1 infection. At present, a commercial kit for GBV-C RNA quantitation is not available.