Hepatitis B News and Research

Latest Hepatitis B News and Research

JAK inhibitors or type I interferon shown to reduce mortality in COVID-19

Now, a new study by researchers at Yale University and published on the preprint server medRxiv in August 2020 reports that the use of two drug categories, namely, JAK inhibitors and Type I interferons (IFNs), is associated with a dramatic improvement in mortality in COVID-19.

13 Aug 2020

Online platform for STI testing receives more than 5000 home kit order requests

As the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in changes to the provision of NHS services, an online platform offering home tests was introduced throughout Wales - enabling service users to access STI testing at home.

13 Aug 2020

New treatment regimens show early efficacy for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

New treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have shown early effectiveness in 85 percent of patients in a cohort that included many people with serious comorbidities that would have excluded them from clinical trials, according to the results of a new international study.

13 Aug 2020

A fast, economical method to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus in untreated wastewater

A group of researchers have demonstrated that, from seven methods commonly used to test for viruses in untreated wastewater, an adsorption-extraction technique can most efficiently detect SARS-CoV-2. This gives us another tool to detect the presence and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

12 Aug 2020

Study identifies three potential drugs to eradicate parasitic worms

Scientists have revealed a way to eradicate parasitic worms by stopping them from using alternative metabolism pathways provided by bacteria that live within them, according to new findings published today in eLife.

12 Aug 2020

SARS-CoV-2 a "swarm" of mutant viruses

In this new study, the virus was serially passaged in independent cell types in a controlled environment. The researchers found that the virus rapidly adapts to the changing conditions in culture by selecting for pre-existing species.

12 Aug 2020

SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission possible in North American deer mice

The current COVID-19 pandemic began as a zoonosis in China, at the end of 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel betacoronavirus with significant similarity to an earlier virus of the same family.

11 Aug 2020

COVID-19 patient with repeatedly undetectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

A recent case study published in the Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine in August 2020 illustrates this with its finding of persistent seronegativity in a patient confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2 positive.

10 Aug 2020

New process could fast track antiviral and anticancer drug discovery

Discovering antiviral and anticancer drugs will soon be faster and cheaper thanks to new research from Simon Fraser University chemist Robert Britton and his international team.

7 Aug 2020

Abnormal liver tests associated with poorer COVID-19 outcomes

Researchers at the Yale Liver Center found that patients with COVID-19 presented with abnormal liver tests at much higher rates than suggested by earlier studies.

7 Aug 2020

Coronavirus-specific structure in cells may lead to new antiviral strategies

By visualizing coronavirus replication in an infected host cell, researchers may have answered a long-standing question about how newly synthesized coronavirus components are able to be incorporated into fully infectious viruses.

7 Aug 2020

America’s obesity epidemic threatens effectiveness of any COVID vaccine

For a world crippled by the coronavirus, salvation hinges on a vaccine.

6 Aug 2020

European Commission approves first drug for hepatitis D

What started off as basic research 25 years ago has now lead to a successfully approved drug: The entry blocker bulevirtide (brand name Hepcludex, formerly known as Myrcludex B), jointly developed by researchers from Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg, the DZIF and other partners, has now been approved by the European Commission.

5 Aug 2020

Normal DNA repair process can lead to mutations in cancer

Hypermutation is an unusual occurence that can lead to many nearby mutations at once, severely damaging our genetic material and potentially causing cancer.

4 Aug 2020

War of sugars - estrogen provides protection in COVID-19

Now a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 reports that sex hormones could affect the function of the fusion protein that is dependent upon the human ACE2 receptor, thus preventing the entry of the virus into the host cell.

31 Jul 2020

Protein produced by the human immune system can strongly inhibit Sars-Cov-2

A protein produced by the human immune system can strongly inhibit corona viruses, including Sars-Cov-2, the pathogen causing Covid-19. An international team from Germany, Switzerland and the USA successfully showed that the LY6E-Protein prevents coronaviruses from causing an infection.

28 Jul 2020

ECDC and WHO collaborate to track the status of hepatitis infections across EU

Approximately four in five people living with hepatitis B and three out of four people with hepatitis C infection across the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the UK have not yet been diagnosed.

28 Jul 2020

Study identifies large number of undiagnosed patients likely infected with hepatitis C in Sweden

Using a large transfusion database, with data going back to the 1960s, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been able to identify 44 donors and 1,180 transfused patients likely to be infected with hepatitis C, who are still alive and who remain undiagnosed.

24 Jul 2020

Study estimates the past and present burden of viral hepatitis through blood transfusions

What is the incidence of viral hepatitis caused by blood transfusions before and after Sweden introduced screening of blood in the early 1990s? In an article published in Eurosurveillance ahead of World Hepatitis Day on 28 July, the authors also try to estimate how many people of those who were infected with hepatitis B and C through blood transfusion still live with undiagnosed hepatitis.

23 Jul 2020

Non-invasive algorithm predicts complications in patients following recovery from hepatitis C

The chronic viral inflammation of the liver that occurs in hepatitis C results in the formation of inflexible scar tissue in the form of fibrosis/cirrhosis of the liver. This impedes the flow of blood through the organ, with resulting hypertension in the portal vein.

23 Jul 2020