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 Science News and Science Current Events Tag Cloud This tag cloud is a visual representation of term frequencies of random science news topics with common terms grouped together and emphasized by their display size. Premature Birth Caffeine Water Quality Down syndrome Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Genetics Cardiovascular Risk Dyslexia Crohns disease Testicular Cancer Restless Legs Syndrome Mobile Phone Soybean Herceptin Wetlands Ants Shark Attack Happiness Magnetic resonance imaging Cancer Risk Heart Muscle Cell Division Esophageal Cancer Food Safety Marine Life
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Related Hepatitis B Current Events and Hepatitis B News Articles 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. Parents of internationally adopted children advised to verify children's immunization levels A study by the division of global child health at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine cautions adoptive parents not to rely solely on vaccination records when gauging their internationally adopted children's immunizations. HIV positive and HIV negative patients have similar survival rates following liver transplant HIV positive and HIV negative patients have comparable survival rates following liver transplant, according to new research presented today at EASL 2009, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark. Pitt vaccine to prevent colon cancer being tested in patients Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have begun testing a vaccine that might be able to prevent colon cancer in people at high risk for developing the disease. Varicella zoster infection causes severe autoimmune hepatitis Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic liver inflammation of unknown etiology that is characterized by the presence of circulatory autoantibodies and ongoing liver tissue damage. When acute hepatitis develops into chronic hepatitis To achieve this, Carlos A. Guzmán, Head of the "Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology" working group and Robert Geffers, Head of the "Gene Expression Analysis" platform, examined the incidence and species of special defence cells, T helper cells, along with their role in the development of the disease in conjunction with their Indian colleagues. Childhood vaccines cause financial burden to many health care providers The costs that health care providers are charged and reimbursed for childhood vaccines vary widely, and the high cost of some immunizations is leading to significant financial strain for some physicians, according to a pair of new studies from the University of Michigan Health System. Study finds Canada's supervised injection facility cost-effective Canada's only supervised injection facility is extending lives and saving the health-care system millions of dollars, a new study shows. More Hepatitis B Current Events and Hepatitis B News Articles |
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