Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus in risk populations and blood donors in a referral hospital in the south of Brazil.

The prevalence of anti-hepatitis E virus (HEV) antibodies has a high heterogeneity worldwide. South American data are still scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of HEV in populations at risk in comparison to blood donors (BD). A cross-sectional study was carried out in adults of different risk populations including crack users (CK), residents in a low income area (LIA), cirrhotic (CIR) and liver transplant patients (LT) compared with BD. The WANTAI HEV ELISA test was used and real-time PCR (in-house for screening and ALTONA as confirmatory test) for HEV RNA screening. A total of 400 participants were included. Anti-HEV IgG was positive in 19.5% of the total sample, reaching the highest rate in the CIR group, 22.5%, followed by CK, LT, and LIA (20%, 18.7%, and 17.5%, respectively). The prevalence found in BD individuals was of 18.7% (p = NS). Anti-HEV IgM was positive in only 1.5% of the sample (6/400). No blood or stools samples were positive for HEV RNA. The seroprevalence reported is among the highest rates ever found in Brazil. Considering the intense diagnostic investigation, data show that HEV circulation is more common that might be expected in our country.

Clinical and epidemiological profile of HCV genotype 3 patients in southern Brazil

Introduction: Despite the emergence of new treatments for HCV genotype 3 (HCV G3), there is still a lack of data about this particular subgroup in Brazil. Our objective was to describe clinical and sociodemographic variables and treatment profile of HCV G3 Brazilian patients. Methods: This was a descriptive, retrospective study, performed in a specialized center for HCV treatment in the South Region of Brazil. Medical records of patients diagnosed with HCV G3 were reviewed to collect clinical, sociodemographic, and treatment information. Results: Participants included total of 564 patients, with a mean age of 59.3 years (SD = 10.5). Cirrhosis was present in 54.4% of patients. The most common coexisting conditions were systemic arterial hypertension (36.6%) and diabetes mellitus (30%). Regarding treatment, 25.2% of the patients were treatment-naïve and 74.8% were currently under treatment (11.6%) or had received a previous treatment (87%). The most frequent ongoing treatment was sofosbuvir + daclatasvir (± ribavirin) (87.8%). Of the 388 patients who had at least one previous treatment, 67% achieved sustained virologic response in the last treatment. Caucasian / white, non-obese, transplanted patients, those with longer time since diagnosis and with cirrhosis were more likely to receive treatment, according to multivariate analysis. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were 64.1% less likely to be on treatment during the study period than those without this condition; patients with chronic kidney disease were 2.91-fold more likely to have an interruption of treatment than those without this condition. Conclusion: This study describes a large sample of Brazilian patients with HCV G3. Treatment patterns were mainly influenced by the presence of HCV complications and comorbidities.(AU)

Intranasal guanosine administration presents a wide therapeutic time window to reduce brain damage induced by permanent ischemia in rats.

In addition to its intracellular roles, the nucleoside guanosine (GUO) also has extracellular effects that identify it as a putative neuromodulator signaling molecule in the central nervous system. Indeed, GUO can modulate glutamatergic neurotransmission, and it can promote neuroprotective effects in animal models involving glutamate neurotoxicity, which is the case in brain ischemia. In the present study, we aimed to investigate a new in vivo GUO administration route (intranasal, IN) to determine putative improvement of GUO neuroprotective effects against an experimental model of permanent focal cerebral ischemia. Initially, we demonstrated that IN [(3)H] GUO administration reached the brain in a dose-dependent and saturable pattern in as few as 5 min, presenting a higher cerebrospinal GUO level compared with systemic administration. IN GUO treatment started immediately or even 3 h after ischemia onset prevented behavior impairment. The behavior recovery was not correlated to decreased brain infarct volume, but it was correlated to reduced mitochondrial dysfunction in the penumbra area. Therefore, we showed that the IN route is an efficient way to promptly deliver GUO to the CNS and that IN GUO treatment prevented behavioral and brain impairment caused by ischemia in a therapeutically wide time window.