ABSTRACT
Aptamers are short nucleic acids or peptides that strongly bind to a protein of interest and functionally inhibit a given target protein at the intracellular level. Besides high affinity and specificity, aptamers have several advantages over traditional antibodies. Hence, they have been broadly selected to develop antiviral agents for therapeutic applications against hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV, HCV). This review provides a summary of in vitro selection and characterization of aptamers against viral hepatitis, which is of practical significance in drug discovery.
ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the clinical outcome of maintenance hemodialysis patients with hepatitis C viruses(HCV)infection.Methods A retrospective investigation about hepatitis C viruses infection was performed in our hemodialysis centre on December 31,2007.The clinical data including demography,serum transaminase,bilirubin,albumin,anti-HCV antibody,HCV RNA,infection-control procedures associated hemodialysis and ultrasound of the liver was analyzed.Results The prevalent rate of HCV infection in our hemodialysis centre was 20.2%(20/99),The mean age of maintenance hemodialysis patients with HCV infection was(63.3?10.9)years old,the duration on dialysis was(79.9?38.7)months,and the duration of positive serum anti-HCV was(32.6?22.6)months(the longest duration was 103.5 months).16 patients(80%)had blood transfusion history in the patients with HCV infection.Only four cases had viremia of HCV,the serum HCV RNA became negative in one of them spontaneously and in another one after interferon therapy for half a year,the other two of them have viremia now.Most of patients found their serum transaminase elevated transiently and mildly.The age and duration on dialysis of the patients with positive serum anti-HCV were significantly longer than those of patients with negative serum anti-HCV.After strict infection-control procedures were carried out,the new onset cases of HCV infection was significantly decreased(1.2% vs 5.3%,P
ABSTRACT
Objective To construct a fusion minigene expression vector of seven HCV NS3 epitopes and express the fusion gene in the eukaryotic cell line, in order to form a foundation for the investigation of the DNA immunization for HCV prevention. Methods Three pairs of complementary oligonucleotides primers covering all seven HCV NS3 epitopes were synthesized. Overlapping extension PCR were performed to construct the fusion minigene and cloned in pEGFP-N3 and pBuDCE vector respectively. The fusion protein was detected by Western blotting and flow cytometric analysis. The transfection efficiency was assessed with by flow cytometric analysis. Results The HCV NS3 epitope fusion minigene was obtained and inserted into pEGFP-N3 and pBuDCE vector respectively. The recombinant plasmid pEGFP-DR4 and pBuDCE-DR4 were expressed in 293T and 046W cell lines respectively. The Western blot result indicated that the expected 36 kDa minigene/EGFP fusion product was expressed from pEGFP-DR4, while 13kDa product from pBuDCE-DR4 respectively. Conclusion The HCV NS3 epitope fusion minigene was expressed in the eukaryocyte expression system.