PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Gene variants protect against relapse after treatment for hepatitis C

2014-03-13
(Press-News.org) More than 100 million humans around the world are infected with hepatitis C virus. The infection gives rise to chronic liver inflammation, which may result in reduced liver function, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Even though anti-viral medications often efficiently eliminate the virus, the infection recurs in approximately one fifth of the patients.

Prevents incorporation in DNA Martin Lagging and co-workers at the Sahlgrenska Academy have studied an enzyme called inosine trifosfatas (ITPase), which normally prevents the incorporation of defective building blocks into RNA and DNA.

Unexpectedly they found that the gene encoding for ITPase (ITPA) had significance for the treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Five times lower risk Earlier studies had shown that approximately one third of all people carry variants of the ITPA gene that result in reduced ITPase activity. The research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy showed that patients with these gene variants exhibited a more than a five times lower risk of experiencing relapse after treatment.

Relapse a significant problem The study encompassed over 300 patients and was carried out in cooperation with hepatitis researchers in several Nordic countries.

- Relapse after completed treatment is a significant problem in chronic hepatitis C, and the results may contribute to explaining why the infection recurs in many patients. Our hypothesis is that a low ITPase activity results in defective nucleotides being incorporated into the virus RNA, which makes the virus unstable, Martin Lagging said.

Important to other virus infections According to Martin Lagging, the discovery may also have significance for other virus infections.

- A medication that interferes with the enzyme's activity could have a broad antiviral effect, but this must be further investigated in future studies.

INFORMATION: The article Variants of the inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase gene are associated with reduced relapse risk following treatment for HCV genotype 2/3 was published online in the journal Hepatology on 13 January 2014.

Link to the article: http://bit.ly/1nc4ly0

Contact: Martin Lagging, researcher at The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
martin.lagging@medfak.gu.se


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study: Response to emotional stress may be linked to some women's heart artery dysfunction

2014-03-13
LOS ANGELES (March 12, 2014) – Researchers at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that emotional stressors – such as those provoking anger – may cause changes in the nervous system that controls heart rate and trigger a type of coronary artery dysfunction that occurs more frequently in women than men. They will describe their findings at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting on March 13 in San Francisco. In men with coronary artery disease, the large arteries feeding the heart tend to become clogged ...

Most of the sand in Alberta's oilsands came from eastern North America, study shows

Most of the sand in Albertas oilsands came from eastern North America, study shows
2014-03-13
They're called the Alberta oilsands but most of the sand actually came from the Appalachian region on the eastern side of the North American continent, a new University of Calgary-led study shows. The oilsands also include sand from the Canadian Shield in northern and east-central Canada and from the Canadian Rockies in western Canada, the study says. This study is the first to determine the age of individual sediment grains in the oilsands and assess their origin. "The oilsands are looked at as a Western asset," says study lead author Christine Benyon, who is just ...

What happened when? How the brain stores memories by time

What happened when? How the brain stores memories by time
2014-03-13
VIDEO: An area of the brain called the hippocampus stores memories based on their sequence in time, instead of by their content, UC Davis researchers have found. The discovery has implications... Click here for more information. Before I left the house this morning, I let the cat out and started the dishwasher. Or was that yesterday? Very often, our memories must distinguish not just what happened and where, but when an event occurred — and what came before and after. New research ...

A brain signal for psychosis risk

2014-03-13
Philadelphia, PA, March 13, 2014 – Only one third of individuals identified as being at clinical high risk for psychosis actually convert to a psychotic disorder within a 3 year follow-up period. This risk assessment is based on the presence of sub-threshold psychotic-like symptoms. Thus, clinical symptom criteria alone do not predict future psychosis risk with sufficient accuracy to justify aggressive early intervention, especially with medications such as antipsychotics that produce significant side effects. Accordingly, there is a strong imperative to develop biomarkers ...

Exchange rate behaves like particles in a molecular fluid

2014-03-13
When scientists observe minute particles like nanoparticles or bacteria in fluid under a microscope, they don't see a motionless image. What they do see are particles making the tiniest irregular twitches not unlike the nervous ups-and-downs of market prices and exchange rates. These two forms of random twitching – microparticles in fluid and price developments on the financial market – are not just similar at first sight as a Japanese-Swiss team has now demonstrated. The underlying mechanism is the same too. Brownian motion, the name given by scientists to the microtwitching ...

Performing cardio- and resistance training during the same session: Does the order matter?

2014-03-13
Although the remarkable benefits of combined training have been clarified by numerous investigations, fitness enthusiasts struggle with the same question: Does the order of cardio- and resistance training influence the effectiveness of a training program? This question has now been the focus of a series of investigations in the Department of Biology of Physical Activity at the University of Jyväskylä. The international research group led by Professor Keijo Häkkinen and coordinated by PhD student Moritz Schumann has recruited a total of almost 200 recreationally active ...

Compassionate Allowances Program yields faster SSDI benefit decisions

2014-03-13
Compassionate Allowances Program yields faster SSDI benefit decisions Article provided by Smolich & Smolich Visit us at http://www.smolichlaw.com An oft-overlooked option for applicants seeking Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits could make the process both less tedious and quicker. The Compassionate Allowances Program (CAP) essentially fast-tracks disability benefits applications for people whose medical conditions are so severe they objectively meet the Social Security Administration (SSA)'s definition ...

Immigrants accused of crimes often held for months and face deportation

2014-03-13
Immigrants accused of crimes often held for months and face deportation Article provided by Law Offices of Mark A. Davis Visit us at http://www.madlawonline.com For any individual, getting charged with a crime can be a serious matter. If you are an immigrant to this country, the stakes are particularly high. Even a relatively minor offense can affect the status of your visa, can make you ineligible for citizenship or permanent residency, and, in some cases, can lead to deportation. According to ICE data, last year 82 percent of the agency's deportations concerning ...

Celebratory gunfire the target of a new Virginia gun law

2014-03-13
Celebratory gunfire the target of a new Virginia gun law Article provided by A. Mark Nicewicz, Esq. Visit us at http://www.nicewicz.com Only on rare occasion is a gun fired in anger. Much more often, gun owners use their weapons for hunting, protection and target practice. Firing a gun can also be a tribute to a fallen veteran or used in celebration, especially as an expression of pride for America on the Fourth of July or on New Year's Eve as a remembrance of the past year. However, guns are deadly weapons, and the misuse of a weapon can bring severe and tragic ...

Who is a "contractor" under New York scaffold and workplace safety laws?

2014-03-13
Who is a "contractor" under New York scaffold and workplace safety laws? Article provided by The Cohen Law Group Visit us at http://www.cohenpersonalinjury.com/ In Rauls v. DirecTV, Inc., the Fourth Department, of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, ruled that the defendant, a satellite television company, who the hired the plaintiff to install satellite system equipment was a "contractor" within meaning of the New York scaffold law and workplace safety law. The Fourth Department also upheld as proper the trial court's decision refusing ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Novel treatment combination improves progression-free survival in metastatic, estrogen-receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer

ESMO 2025: Trial results show belzutifan shrinks rare neuroendocrine tumors and improves symptoms in patients

ESMO 2025: Dual targeted therapy shows promise in previously treated advanced kidney cancer patients

New generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) shows unprecedented promise in early-stage disease

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for October 2025

Three science and technology leaders elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Jump Trading CSO Kevin Bowers elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Former Inscripta CEO Sri Kosaraju elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Citadel’s Jordan Chetty elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

McGill research flags Montreal snow dump, inactive landfills as major methane polluters

A lightweight and rapid bidirectional search algorithm

Eighty-five years of big tree history available in one place for the first time

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

How the brain becomes a better listener: How focus enhances sound processing

Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, named 2025 STAT Wunderkind

Treating liver disease with microscopic nanoparticles

Chemicals might be hitching a ride on nanoplastics to enter your skin

Pregnant patients with preexisting high cholesterol may have elevated CV risk

UC stroke experts discuss current and future use of AI tools in research and treatment

The Southern Ocean’s low-salinity water locked away CO2 for decades, but...

OHSU researchers develop functional eggs from human skin cells

Most users cannot identify AI bias, even in training data

Hurricane outages: Analysis details the where, and who, of increased future power cuts

Craters on surface of melanoma cells found to serve as sites for tumor killing

Research Spotlight: Mapping overlooked challenges in stroke recovery

Geographic and temporal patterns of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer in the US

[Press-News.org] Gene variants protect against relapse after treatment for hepatitis C