Clinical Core

临床中心的主要目的是建立和维持一个急性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）组织库。更好地了解HCV感染的自发恢复对改进预防和治疗慢性感染的方法是必要的。一个主要的限制是对人类急性感染的罕见识别。我们通过每月跟踪有丙型肝炎病毒感染风险的人，克服了这一障碍。通过筛查HCV感染和仔细监测急性感染者，我们已经建立了一个急性感染库，免疫学家已经使用它来提高我们对急性丙型肝炎的理解。在这一竞争更新中，临床活动集中在临床核心，其目的是招募和治疗丙型肝炎

The chief purpose of the Clinical Core is to establish and maintain an acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) tissue repository. Better understanding of spontaneous recovery of HCV infection is necessary to improve methods to prevent and treat chronic infection. A major limitation is the rare recognition of acute infection in humans. We have overcome this obstacle by following persons at risk for HCV infection monthly. By screening for HCV infection and careful monitoring of acutely infected persons, we have established an acute infection repository that has already been used by immunologists to advance our understanding of acute hepatitis C. In this competing renewal, the clinical activities are focused in a Clinical Core whose aims are to recruit and monitor HCV antibody negative young injection drug users, to clinically characterize acute infection when it occurs, and to establish and maintain an acute infection repository and distribute the resources to NIH funded investigators. By accomplishing these aims, the Clinical Core will make a major contribution to our understanding of hepatitis C recovery and achieve many of the objectives of RFA-AI-04-028.