Prevalence of Human Herpesvirus-8 and BK Polyoma Virus Infections in End-stage Renal Disease and the Influence of Renal Transplantation.

Viral infections lead to significant morbidity and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. We evaluated 49 kidney transplant recipients for human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) and BK polyomavirus infections in conjunction with data obtained from 43 donors. The seroprevalence of HHV-8 was 6.9% in donors and 12.2% in recipients. HHV-8 DNA was detected below the limit of quantification (<5000 copies/mL) in a recipient with HHV-8 seropositivity at the pretransplant period and was undetectable at month 3 after transplantation. Transient viruria with BK polyomavirus was recorded in 10.2% of recipients without viremia. Multiple factors contribute to viral reactivation, particularly immunosuppressive treatment. Reduction in maintenance immunosuppression seems beneficial in terms of viral reactivation. At our center, routine use of valganciclovir for antiviral prophylaxis may be effective for the prevention of HHV-8 reactivation.

Seroprevalence of serum HBsAg positivity and hepatitis delta virus infection among blood donors in Southeastern Turkey.

AIMS: HBV and HDV infection is still a serious health problem in Southeastern Turkey. In this study, we aim to investigate the prevalence serum HBsAg along with HDV infection among volunteer blood donors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This single centre and prospective study was performed in 6200 consecutive volunteer blood donors admitted to the Central Blood Bank of Dicle University Hospital. All adult blood donors included males and females were screened for HBsAg positivity. The positive serum samples for HBsAg were assessed for total anti-delta antibodies using the micro-ELISA method. Serum samples of anti-delta antibody positive cases were then examined for the presence of serum HDV RNA by real time, reverse transcription PCR method. RESULTS: Six thousand two hundred adult volunteer blood donors were enrolled to the study. Of all analyzed blood donors, 6004 (96.8%) were men and 196 (3.2%) were women. Serum HBsAg positivity was found in 3% (186/6200) of 6200 blood donors. The mean age and female/male ratio of HBsAg positive cases (n=186) were 32.85±10.04 years and 12/174, respectively. Serum anti-delta antibodies were detected in 6.98% (13/186) of HBsAg positive cases. The mean age of anti-delta antibody positive cases (n=13) was 44.5±13.61 years and female/male ratio was 1/12. Moreover, 2 cases, (15.39%, 2/13) that were positive for anti-delta antibody, had serum HDV RNA positivity. CONCLUSIONS: It would be appropriate for HBsAg positive volunteer blood donors to be assessed regarding concurrent HDV infection as well. The magnitude of the contribution and benefit that this screening would provide to our region, which is endemic for HDV infection, is the early diagnosis and management of this devastating disease. The real viremia in these cases can be best shown by using sensitive real time PCR method for the presence of serum HDV RNA.

Lamivudine and Adefovir Motif Variants Detected in chronic Hepatitis B patients.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Chronic hepatitis B is an important health problem worldwide. Lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir and telbivudine are the oral drugs licensed for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B. Implementation of antiviral therapy leads to the emergence of mutant strains during the treatment in chronic hepatitis B. Primary antiviral resistance may be rarely encountered. The aims of this study were to detect the resistance patterns of Hepatit B Virus strains in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 147 CHB patients were included to this study which was carried on between January 2007- December 2010. HBV DNA levels were detected by using the Real time PCR (COBAS Ampli- Prep/COBAS TaqMan HBV Test). HBV-DNA was extracted from the sera of the patients by using extraction kit (Invisorb, Instant Spin DNA/RNA Virus Mini Kit, Germany). A line prob assay (Inno-Lipa HBV DR v2, Innogenetics N.V, Ghent, Belgium) was used to determine motif variants at viral polymerase gene fragment in HBV-DNA samples of these patients and evaluated colorimetrically. RESULTS: In 147 patients antiviral resistance rate was found 17% (25/147) for lamivudin, 5.44% (8/147) adefovir, 0.68%(1/147) lamivudin and adefovir. Various mutations were detected. This mutations; responsible for lamivudine resistance YMDD+YVDD (n=10), YMDD+YIDD (n=12), YIDD (n=2), YVDD (=1); responsible for adefovir resistance N236T (n=3), A181T (n=5); responsible for lamivudine and adefovir resistance YMDD+YIDD+N236T (n=1). CONCLUSIONS: As a conclusion, it is thought that drug resistance should be followed up regularly, the determination of HBV drug resistance as immediate as possible period may be instructive for the treatment and follow-up in CHB patients. Although determination of known mutations with Inno Lipa DR v2 method is disadvantage, because of ease of application and the determination of both lamivudin-adefovir resistance in a short time, it can be used for the treatment and follow-up in CHB patients.

In utero and in vitro proteinase activity during the Mesocricetus auratus embryo zona escape time window.

The goal of the present study was to investigate proteinase activity in uterine flushates collected during the zona loss time window (68-80 h post-egg activation) in both pregnant and pseudopregnant hamsters and in culture medium conditioned by hatching blastocysts. Several prominent enzyme activities appeared in all pregnant and pseudopregnant uterine flushates. However, only a 45, 43 x 10(-3) M:(r) doublet coincided with the zona loss time window; these bands were absent outside of this time window and were not found in conditioned medium. In medium conditioned by hatching blastocysts, enzyme activity was represented by a 70, 65 x 10(-3) M:(r) doublet identical to a doublet seen in all uterine flushates collected and in serum. There were 12 pregnant and 8 pseudopregnant uterine flushates that were capable of zona lytic activity in vitro (positive bioassays). Of these positive bioassays, five pregnant and four pseudopregnant uterine flushates exhibited the 45, 43 x 10(-3) M:(r) doublet (correlative positive bioassays). These data suggest that there is an important uterine contribution to blastocyst escape from the zona pellucida, consisting of proteinases secreted during a finite time window prior to blastocyst attachment that are different from the proteinases responsible for the zona lytic activity in vitro.