SEARCH FOR NEW HEPATITIS AGENTS

来自急性或慢性非A、B、C、D、E 在美国，人们正在研究肝炎的生物学， 血清学或分子学证据表明存在传染性病原体。 患者 暴发性非甲非乙型肝炎仍然是一个诊断上的谜， 感染一种或多种以前未识别的病毒。 我们 试图发现这种疾病的病因。 证据 另一种水传播肝炎病毒的存在来自 印度和沙特阿拉伯的血清流行病学研究。 从50-100% 在16次水传播性肝炎流行中， 但有一次水传播的流行病既不是HAV也不是HEV引起的。 同样，在沙特阿拉伯，13.4%的成人急性肝炎不能 被诊断为甲型-戊型肝炎，似乎是由 非肠胃外方法。 我们正试图传送一名特工 这些患者的临床样本。 几年前，据报道，一种肝炎病毒可从 一个非甲非乙型肝炎患者给绒猴。 经纪人打电话来 GB代理人，可以在绒猴中连续传播， 部分特征。 最近GB代理被克隆和测序 并与一个之前未被发现的人类有远亲关系 其他人发现的病毒。 其他人独立地发现了一种 更多人类病毒 英国特工和新发现的人类 病毒正在灵长类动物和体外进行研究。 该项目的目标是确定和描述新的 肝炎的病原体，并开发有用的诊断方法 感染和血清流行病学研究。 长期目标是 针对这些人开发被动和主动免疫预防 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. From 50-100% of hepatitis cases in sixteen epidemics of water-borne hepatitis were caused by HEV but one water-borne epidemic was caused by neither HAV nor HEV. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, 13.4% of acute hepatitis in adults could not be diagnosed as hepatitis A-E and appeared to be transmitted by nonparenteral means. 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 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 distantly related to a previously unrecognized human virus discovered by others. Others have independently discovered an additional human virus. The GB agent and the newly discovered human viruses are being studied in primates and in vitro. 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.