SLU Liver Center to Study Whether Potent HIV Drug Could Benefit Hepatitis B PatientsMay 04, 2006ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis University School of Medicine researchers are studying the effectiveness of a drug for patients with chronic hepatitis B that is currently used to treat HIV. Hepatitis B patients currently take an antiviral called Hepsera, says Adrian Di Bisceglie, M.D., chief of hepatology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. The drug under investigation in the study, called Tenofovir, is similar to Hepsera in that it is a "nucleotide analog" that helps stop the virus from propagating. Researchers will study Tenofovir's efficacy compared to Hepsera's in up to 300 patients worldwide. "We have high hopes that Tenofovir will be more potent than the current drug regimen for hepatitis B patients," Di Bisceglie says. Hepatitis B is a disease passed down from mother to infant during pregnancy and has reached epidemic levels in China, Vietnam and sub-Saharan Africa. "It is a terrible disease because it kills people in their prime of their lives - in their 30s, 40s and 50s," Di Bisceglie says. "What makes it even more devastating is that there are mild non-specific symptoms or sometimes no symptoms at all." Most American women who undergo prenatal screening are also screened for hepatitis B, Di Bisceglie says, and because there is a safe, effective vaccine, hepatitis B is a "controllable" disease. "But we hope this new antiviral can help improve the lives of patients with hepatitis B," he says. Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first M.D. degree west of the Mississippi River. Saint Louis University School of Medicine is a pioneer in geriatric medicine, organ transplantation, chronic disease prevention, cardiovascular disease, neurosciences and vaccine research, among others. The School of Medicine trains physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health services on a local, national and international level. Saint Louis University School of Medicine |
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| Related Hepatitis B Current Events and Hepatitis B News Articles Hepatitis B does not increase risk for pancreatic cancer A Henry Ford Hospital study found that hepatitis B does not increase the risk for pancreatic cancer - and that only age is a contributing factor. Researchers prolong the plasma half-life of biopharmaceutical proteins Many biopharmaceuticals comprise small proteins that are quickly eliminated from the body. Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) combine such small proteins with a kind of molecular balloon that swells and thus prolongs the half-life of the proteins in the body. Penn State College of Medicine research isolates liver cancer stem cells prior to tumor formation Penn State College of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Southern California, have taken an important step in understanding the role of stem cells in development of liver cancer. New 'adjuvant' could hold future of vaccine development Scientists at Oregon State University have developed a new "adjuvant" that could allow the creation of important new vaccines, possibly become a universal vaccine carrier and help medical experts tackle many diseases more effectively. oes peripheral T-lymphocyte subpopulations correlate with hepatitis B virus load? Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a dynamic process with variable biochemical, virological and histological profiles at different stages of the infection, depending on host and viral factors. Furthermore, this profile may change at a variable pace over time. Pre-chewed food could transmit HIV Researchers have uncovered the first cases in which HIV almost certainly was transmitted from mothers or other caregivers to children through pre-chewed food. Focusing HIV treatment helps control concurrent hepatitis B infection Prolonged use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to treat people infected with both HIV and hepatitis B (HBV) helps to better control the hepatitis B infection and could delay or prevent liver complications. DKK-3 and WIF-1: Proteins related to liver cancer development? Liver cancer is one of the most fatal human malignancies and the third most frequent cause of tumor-related death, about half a million people globally each year. Low-fat diet helps genetically predisposed animals avoid liver cancer In a study comparing two strains of mice, one susceptible to developing cancer and the other not, researchers found that a high-fat diet predisposed the cancer-susceptible strain to liver cancer, and that by switching to a low-fat diet early in the experiment, the same high-risk mice avoided the malignancy. NEJM Study Points to New Era in Hepatitis C Treatment For patients with the most common form of hepatitis C, the addition of a hepatitis C-specific protease inhibitor called telaprevir to the current standard therapy can significantly improve the chances of being cured, and it does it in half the time of standard therapy alone. More Hepatitis B Current Events and Hepatitis B News Articles |
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