SEARCH FOR NEW HEPATITIS AGENTS

急、慢性非甲、乙、丙、丁、戊型肺炎患者的临床样本 美国的肝炎正在进行生物学研究， 传播剂的血清学或分子证据。病人 对于暴发性非甲型肝炎，非乙型肝炎仍然是一个诊断谜，并可能 感染了一种或多种以前未被识别的病毒。我们是 试图发现这种疾病的病因。 另一种水媒肝炎病毒存在的证据 来自印度和沙特阿拉伯的血清流行病学研究。我们 正试图从这种临床标本中传播一种病毒 病人。几年前，据报道，一种肝炎病毒 从非甲非乙型肝炎患者传染给恒河猴 (塔玛兰语)猴子。被称为GB代理的代理可以是连续的 在绒猴中传播，并具有部分特征。最近一段时间 对gB毒株进行克隆和测序，结果表明是两种不同的病毒， 每一种都与丙型肝炎病毒有远亲关系，以及以前的 未被识别的人类病毒。英国特工和新发现的人类 病毒正在灵长类动物体内和体外进行研究。 迄今为止，新发现的人类病毒(HGV/GBV-C)一直是 传播给黑猩猩，并由此感染的特征。 此外，在新大陆还发现了几种新病毒 猴子。这些正在被进一步描述。 现代分子生物学技术已被用来发现新的 最近几年的病毒。这些现在正被应用于预期的 年采集的输血相关性肝炎患者血清 寻找可能导致高达15%的临床肝炎的新肝炎病毒 美国的肝炎。 该项目的目标是确定和描述新的 肝炎的病原体和开发有用的诊断方法 感染和血清流行病学研究。一个长期目标是 人类被动免疫预防和主动免疫预防的研究进展 病原体。

Clinical samples from patients with acute or chronic non-A, B, C, D, E hepatitis in the United States are being studied for biological, serological or molecular evidence of transmissible agents. Patients with fulminant non-A, non-B hepatitis remain a diagnostic enigma and may be infected with one or more previously unrecognized viruses. We are attempting to discover the etiology of this disease. Evidence for the existence of an additional water-borne hepatitis virus has come from sero-epidemiologic studies in India and Saudi Arabia. We are attempting to transmit an agent from clinical specimens of such patients. Some years ago, a hepatitis virus was reported to be transmissible from a non-A, non-B hepatitis patient to marmoset (tamarin) monkeys. The agent, called the GB agent, could be serially transmitted in marmosets and was partially characterized. Recently the GB agent was cloned and sequenced and shown to be two separate viruses, each distantly related to hepatitis C virus as well as a previously unrecognized human virus. The GB agents and the newly discovered human virus are being studied in primates and in vitro. To date, the newly recognized human virus (HGV/GBV-C) has been transmitted to chimpanzees and the resulting infection characterized. In addition, several new viruses have been discovered in New World monkeys. These are being further characterized. Modern techniques of molecular biology have been used to discover new viruses in recent years. These are now being applied to prospectively collected sera from patients with transfusion-associated hepatitis in a search for new hepatitis viruses that may cause up to 15% of clinical hepatitis in the US. The objectives of this project are to identify and characterize new etiologic agents of hepatitis and to develop useful assays for diagnosis of infection and seroepidemiologic studies. A long-term objective is the development of passive and active immunoprophylaxis for these human pathogens.