Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023890 (cirrhosis)
 42,195 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Therapy for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is primarily directed at those patients with evidence of replicative infection because they are most at risk for developing chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and possibly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although a number of agents or therapeutic approaches have been tested against HBV infection, only a few have been subjected to controlled clinical trial. Corticosteroid therapy, particularly if prolonged, may be harmful and should be avoided. Adenine arabinoside monophosphate (Ara-AMP) has potent inhibitory effects on HBV replication, but its use is limited by severe neurotoxicity. At present, prolonged treatment with alpha interferon offers the most promise as a beneficial therapy for chronic type B hepatitis. Alpha interferon consistently induces permanent clearance of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and HBV DNA from serum more often than in untreated patients. Present efforts are directed at determining the factors predictive of a favorable response to interferon, and attempting to increase the response rate by using alpha interferon in combination with other antiviral or immunomodulatory agents.
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PMID:Treatment of chronic type B hepatitis. 262 Mar 10

Hepatitis B virus infection is responsible for both morbidity and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. Adenine arabinoside 5'-monophosphate (ARA-AMP), a synthetic purine nucleotide with anti-viral activity, leads to a sustained interruption of HBV replication in approximately 40% of immunocompetent patients. We report the results of a pilot study using ARA-AMP to treat HBV-related chronic active hepatitis in kidney transplant recipients. Ten patients (2 females and 8 males, mean age 44 years, mean time post-transplantation 163 months) received a 28-day course of ARA-AMP intramuscularly: 5 mg/kg twice daily for the first 5 days during hospitalization and subsequently 5 mg/kg once daily at home for the remaining 23 days. Mean follow-up was 18 months, ranging from 7 to 28 months. All patients but one had biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis, including five cases of cirrhosis. All patients had been chronic HBs Ag carriers for more than 1 year and had active replication as assessed by the presence of serum HBV DNA (mean titre, 270 pg/ml, ranging from 12 to 997 pg/ml, Genostics method). HBe Ag was present in 7 of the 10 patients. Pretreatment creatinine was normal. In four of the 10 patients, HBV DNA became undetectable respectively 1, 1, 5, and 11 months after beginning ARA-AMP. In five patients, HBV DNA decreased during ARA-AMP therapy but subsequently increased although no change was noted during the follow-up period.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Effectiveness of adenine arabinoside 5'-monophosphate in kidney transplant recipients with chronic active hepatitis B. 752 77