Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.6.1.2 (alanine aminotransferase)
 26,722 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The usefulness of the direct virus detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) for blood donor screening was investigated, including the following viruses: cytomegalovirus (CMV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency type 1 virus (HIV1). Hepatitis C viraemia was detected by RT PCR in 97% of anti-HCV-positive haemophiliacs, in 48% of anti-HCV-positive hepatitis patients, in only 21% of anti-HCV-positive blood donors from North-West Germany, and not at all in 945 blood donors with elevated serum ALT. In order to compare HIV1 detection by PCR and by p24 antigen determination, we tested 34 anti-HIV1-positive AIDS patients for p24 antigen, HIV1 RNA and HIV1 provirus DNA. 97% had HIV1 provirus DNA, 35% had HIV RNA, but only 30% had p24 antigen. A multiplex PCR specific for HBV, HCV and HIV1 (RNA and DNA) was developed for the investigation of a blood donor population from Namibia, where HBV and HIV1 infections occur more frequently than in German blood donors. The prevalence of anti-HIV1 antibodies in this population was 0.6%. HIV1 RNA was never detected in the plasma of 2,569 anti-HIV1-negative donors. HIV1 provirus DNA was present in 75% of the 16 anti-HIV1-positive individuals. None of these anti-HIV1-positive blood donors was also positive for p24 antigen. CMV infections and reactivations in 130 immunocompromised heart transplant patients and in 420 healthy anti-CMV-positive blood donors were monitored using cytochemical detection of CMV early antigen, and PCR. CMV DNA was neither detected in the plasma nor in the leucocytes of any anti-CMV-positive blood donor. During the course of CMV reactivation in immunocompromised heart transplant patients, CMV DNA was always detectable first in granulocytes and afterwards in the plasma. The cytochemical demonstration of CMV early antigen was typically delayed by several days and was observed in only 11% of those blood samples which contained CMV DNA in leucocytes. The determination of CMV DNA in leucocytes proved to be the most sensitive method to detect viraemia. Thus, CMV detection in leucocytes is the method of choice for the monitoring of transplant patients. This method is also promising for blood donor screening. The sensitive routine monitoring of blood donations for virus infections by multiplex PCR is practicable. However, nucleic acid must be extracted both from the plasma and from the cellular compartments of blood in order to detect HIV and CMV provirus DNA. Lysate from EDTA blood is a suitable material for this purpose. The determination of the surrogate marker serum ALT activity is of no use in hepatitis C screening, and determination of p24 antigen is not required in HIV1 screening.
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PMID:[Molecular biological screening of viruses important to transfusion medicine]. 948 64

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an important cause of disease in immunocompromised patients. In a prospective longitudinal study of 34 septic patients, the incidence of active CMV infection was examined. Eleven of 34 patients (32.4%) had active CMV infection, diagnosed by immunocytochemical staining of CMV pp65 antigen in blood leukocytes and/or detection of CMV DNA by PCR. Positive results for CMV infection were obtained in a median of 4 days (by PCR) or 11 days (by staining of pp65 antigen) after onset of sepsis. Twenty patients for whom more than one sample was examined were selected for further analysis. Among the patients with active CMV infection (nine of 20) there was a trend toward higher median values of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1 beta, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase in plasma, in comparison with the values for patients without CMV infection. Sepsis in patients with CMV infection may affect outcome of the disease.
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PMID:High incidence of active cytomegalovirus infection among septic patients. 959 30

Parvovirus B19 (B19), also known as "erythema infectiosum", is a disease that occurs in smaller outbreaks during late winter and early summer; and in Denmark an epidemic occurs every three years. The symptoms vary from fever, fatigue and the characteristic maculopapoulous erythema to asymptomatic cases in 50% of the infected patients. Two-thirds of the Danish population have been infected. The virus has a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from erythema nodosum in children, arthralgia/arthritis (especially in adults), aplastic crisis in patients with haemolytic anaemia, chronic anaemia in immunocompromised patients, to hydrops foetalis following acute infection during pregnancy. In two adult females aged 41 and 35 years with persisting fatigue, malaise, transitory swelling and arthralgia we found elevated ALT and alkaline phosphatase (pt. 1), despite no serological evidence of hepatitis, cytomegalovirus (CMV), or Epstein-Barrvirus and no story of alcohol consumption or recent travelling outside Denmark. Ongoing B19 infection was diagnosed by ELISA and confirmed by B19 DNA PCR in case 2 and IgG avidity and epitope-type specificity in case 1, who was B19 DNA negative in three different samples. The concentrations of alkaline phosphatase and ALT returned to normal as the antibody response shifted from acute B19 infection to IgG positivity. In conclusion we suggest that a serological test and/or B19 DNA for B19 infection is a relevant test to undertake when screening patients for viral hepatitis especially during B19 epidemics and in exposed individuals.
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PMID:[Parvovirus B19 as a cause of acute liver symptoms in adults]. 981 Feb 42

A novel virus, TT virus (TTV), recently discovered by Okamoto et al. in the serum of a patient with posttransfusion hepatitis, is thought to be one of the causative agents of blood-borne acute hepatitis. The association of this virus with acute sporadic hepatitis was evaluated. TTV DNA was detected in 4 (4.9%) of 81 cases of acute hepatitis A, in 5 (16.7%) of 30 cases of acute hepatitis B, in 1 (25.0%) of 4 cases of acute hepatitis C, in 1 (9.1%) of 9 cases of cytomegalovirus and Eppstein-Barr infection, and in 8 (13.6%) of 59 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology. These positive rates of TTV in various etiologies did not differ significantly amongst each other, and were similar to those of healthy volunteers, i.e. 12.0% (12/100). The comparison of levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, hepaplastin test and prothrombin time between TT virus-positive and -negative patients did not show any differences. This indicates that TTV is neither a main causative agent of acute sporadic hepatitis of unknown etiology, nor does it affect the clinical features of acute hepatitis with already known etiology.
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PMID:TT virus (TTV) is not associated with acute sporadic hepatitis. 1021 44

Many different aetiological agents stimulate alanine aminotransferase (ALT) production. Viral markers and other aetiologies were investigated in 2166 individuals, randomly selected from 10,000 consecutive blood donors. Elevation of ALT was found in 10.8% of subjects. Grouping donors according to ALT level and correlating with, respectively, hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb), cytomegalovirus antibody alone, or associated with HBcAb, showed similar findings (high ALT 11.1%, normal 11.6%; high 85.4%, normal 81.4%; high 10.2%, normal 11.0%, respectively). Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody was found to be significantly associated with elevated ALT levels (high 1.7%, normal 0.26%). Other causes of ALT elevation were alcohol abuse (17%), obesity (25%) and dyslipidaemia (38%), but in 11% there was no obvious aetiology. Although HCV is a rare cause of elevated ALT in blood donors, it seems to be the only virus, among those tested, to account for liver damage. This may be due to the non-protective role of HCV antibody, the low specificity of ALT, or the pathogenic role of uninvestigated viruses.
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PMID:Elevated alanine aminotransferase in blood donors: role of different factors and multiple viral infections. 1050 3

The aim of our study was to assess the clinical, biochemical and virological profile of patients with atypical viral hepatitis A (protracted, relapsed and cholestatic forms). Five patients with the relapsed form and 2 patients with the cholestatic form were studied among 95 patients hospitalized in our Division of Infectious Diseases for viral hepatitis A during the years 1988 to 1998. A relapse was defined by a decrease in serum alanine transaminase levels > or = 50% followed by a > or = 50% increase in the minimal value. The protracted form was defined by elevated serum alanine transaminase levels for more than 6 months. The cholestatic form was defined by the highest value of bilirubinemia above 15 mg/dL or by a persistent jaundice for more than 8 weeks. All 5 of the protracted-relapsed forms had a biphasic course: the median time between onset and relapse of the disease was 8 weeks, and serum aminotransferase activities returned to the normal range within an average of 45 weeks after relapse. The two cholestatic forms were characterized by a very high level of bilirubinemia (24.58 and 19.03 mg/dL) and by protracted jaundice with itching (3 and 8 months). All patients were tested for hepatitis B and C, Cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, with negative results. In short, viral hepatitis A is a benign, self-limiting disease which usually resolves in a few weeks. In a non-negligible percentage of cases (3-21%), however, it can assume atypical forms, which are more serious in patients with chronic liver diseases.
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PMID:[Viral hepatitis A with atypical course. Clinical, biochemical, and virologic study of 7 cases]. 1063 16

Acute intraperitoneal infection of weanling BALB/c mice with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) resulted in an inoculum titer-dependent weight loss, mortality and elevation of plasma transaminases (ALT: alanine transaminase and AST: aspartate transaminase). Three days post infection (p.i.) with 10(4.85) plaque forming units (pfu) there was 90% mortality with a mean death day p.i. of 4.1 +/- 0.2. Plasma levels of ALT and AST were elevated 24- and 15-fold, respectively. Organ titers of virus (log10 pfu/g tissue) were 6.16 in the liver, 6.05 in the spleen, 4.0-4.7 in the lung, heart, kidney and intestine and undetectable in the muscle and brain. Organ concentrations (units/g wet-weight) of ALT were highest in the liver, whilst for AST the highest levels were found in the heart. The concentrations of ALT but not AST were reduced (35-55%) in the infected liver; the concentrations of ALT and AST were not changed in other infected organs. There were excellent correlations (r > 0.95) between viral titers in the liver, increases of plasma ALT and depletion of liver ALT. HPMPC and ganciclovir administered either p.o. or s.c. reduced mortality, increases in plasma transaminases and viral burdens in the liver and prevented depletion of liver ALT. HPMPC was approximately 10-fold more potent than ganciclovir. These results strongly suggest that intraperitoneal infection of the BALB/c mouse with MCMV represents an animal model of CMV hepatitis that can be monitored by measuring plasma ALT.
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PMID:Acute murine cytomegalovirus infection: a model for determining antiviral activity against CMV induced hepatitis. 1065 Oct 67

A patient with Jo-1 antibody-associated polymyositis (Jo-1 PM) had a Karnofsky score of 40% and severe muscle, liver and lung damage that was refractory to standard therapy. The female patient received an autologous T-cell-depleted haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) after myeloablative conditioning. The transplant procedure was complicated by severe adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and adenovirus-associated haemorrhagic cystitis as well as cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation. The patient's creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) and alanine transaminase (ALT) values were normal on day 21. The patient's strength has improved remarkably and her dyspnoea is subjectively improved. At 15 months after the transplant, the patient was well with a Karnofsky score of 80% and had been off any therapy, including steroids, for 14 months.
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PMID:Effective treatment of Jo-1-associated polymyositis with T-cell-depleted autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. 1138 Apr 80

In order to determine the factors responsible for the differentiation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) hepatitis and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hepatitis in previously healthy adults, the clinical features and laboratory data of both types of hepatitis were retrospectively analyzed. CMV hepatitis showed a tendency to increase in our department. In comparison with EBV hepatitis, CMV hepatitis occurred in significantly older hosts than EBV hepatitis. We found that lymphadenopathy, cough and sore throat was more common in EBV hepatitis than in CMV hepatitis. The number of peripheral white blood cell count and atypical lymphocytes, and serum GOT, GPT, LDH and CRP levels of CMV and EBV hepatitis showed no significant differences.
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PMID:[Comparison between cytomegalovirus hepatitis and Epstein-Barr virus hepatitis in healthy adults]. 1110 65

In 30 patients with mononucleosis-like syndrome (MLS) caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV), diagnosed on the basis of clinical symptoms, haematological & serological changes (after excluding Epstein-Barr virus, HAV, HBV and HCV infections), the following measurements were done weekly during consecutive two months': bilirubin concentration, aspartate & alanine aminotransferases (AST & ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), beta-glucuronidase (B-GR), and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGTP) activity. Increase in bilirubin concentration was found in 6% of patients, increase of AST and ALT activity--in 70%, GGTP--in 50%, ALP--in 25%, and of B-GR--in 16% of the subjects. The highest bilirubin concentration, and high levels of AST, ALT, and B-GR were noted in the 2nd week of infection, whereas the peak activity of ALP and GGTP was found in the 3rd week of the disease. In all patients normalization of bilirubin concentration was earliest (5th week of infection); followed by decrease of AST, ALT, B-GR, and ALP activity (7th week), and subsequently--that of GGTP (8th week of the disease). The results of the investigations have shown that in the course of MLS the changes of hepatic activity are limited and transient; they return to normal synchronously with the withdrawal of clinical symptoms (4th-6th week of the disease), without permanent measurable consequences. In patients with MLS and increase AST & ALT activity (400-600 iu) as well as slight increased of bilirubin concentrations hepatitis C,A and B should be excluded. In has not been established so far whether the changes of hepatic function during MLS are the consequence of direct infection by CMV, reactivation of the primary occult infection (asymptomatic), or re-infection by a different serotype.
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PMID:[Biochemical changes of liver damage factors in the course of mononucleosis like syndrome caused by cytomegalovirus]. 1134 95


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