Ahmed El‐Shamy, Motoko Nagano‐Fujii, Noriko Sasase, Susumu Imoto, Soo‐Ryang Kim, Hak Hotta – 20 June 2008 – A substantial proportion of hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐1b–infected patients still do not respond to interferon‐based therapy. This study aims to explore a predictive marker for the ultimate virological response of HCV‐1b–infected patients treated with pegylated interferon/ribavirin (PEG‐IFN/RBV) combination therapy. Nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) sequences of HCV in the pretreated sera of 45 patients infected with HCV‐1b were analyzed.

Maria A. Gonzalez‐Carmona, Veronika Lukacs‐Kornek, Anne Timmerman, Sara Shabani, Miroslaw Kornek, Annabelle Vogt, Yildiz Yildiz, Elisabeth Sievers, Ingo G.H. Schmidt‐Wolf, Wolfgang H. Caselmann, Tilman Sauerbruch, Volker Schmitz – 20 June 2008 – Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen‐presenting cells able to prime T‐cells against tumor‐associated antigens (TAA), but their potential to induce hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) regression is still limited. CD40/CD40L interaction is essential for DC activation and induction of antigen‐specific T‐cells.

Takashi Ebihara, Masashi Shingai, Misako Matsumoto, Takaji Wakita, Tsukasa Seya – 20 June 2008 – Dendritic cell maturation critically modulates antiviral immune responses, and facilitates viral clearance. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is characterized by its high predisposition to persistent infection. Here, we examined the immune response of human monocyte‐derived dendritic cells (MoDCs) to the JFH1 strain of HCV, which can efficiently replicate in cell culture. However, neither HCV RNA replication nor antigen production was detected in MoDCs inoculated with JFH1.

Eric Delwart – 20 June 2008

Paul J. Pockros, David Nelson, Eliot Godofsky, Maribel Rodriguez‐Torres, Gregory T. Everson, Michael W. Fried, Reem Ghalib, Stephen Harrison, Lisa Nyberg, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Isabel Najera, Anna Chan, George Hill – 20 June 2008 – R1626, a prodrug of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA polymerase inhibitor R1479, showed time‐dependent and dose‐dependent reduction of HCV RNA levels in a previous study. The present study evaluated the efficacy and safety of R1626 administered for 4 weeks in combination with peginterferon alfa‐2a ± ribavirin in HCV genotype 1‐infected treatment‐naive patients.

Yuxia Zhang, Ping Xu, Kyungtae Park, Yunhee Choi, David D. Moore, Li Wang – 20 June 2008 – The small heterodimer partner (SHP; NROB2), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, contributes to the biological regulation of several major functions of the liver. However, the role of SHP in cellular proliferation and tumorigenesis has not been investigated before. Here we report that SHP negatively regulates tumorigenesis both in vivo and in vitro.

Paloma Sanz‐Cameno, Samuel Martín‐Vílchez, Yolanda Rodriguez‐Muñoz, Ricardo Moreno‐Otero – 20 June 2008

Carlo La Vecchia – 20 June 2008

Morris Sherman, Cihan Yurdaydin, Halis Simsek, Marcelo Silva, Yun‐Fan Liaw, Vinod K. Rustgi, Hoel Sette, Naoky Tsai, Daniel J. Tenney, James Vaughan, Bruce Kreter, Robert Hindes, AI463026 Benefits of Entecavir for Hepatitis B Liver Disease (BEHoLD) Study Group – 20 June 2008 – In hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)‐positive chronic hepatitis B patients who were refractory to current lamivudine therapy, switching to entecavir was superior to continued lamivudine at week 48 for histologic improvement, viral load reduction by polymerase chain reaction and alanine aminotransferase normalization.

David Q.‐H. Wang, Sum P. Lee – 20 June 2008 – Although many putative sterol transporters influencing cholesterol absorption and physical–chemical factors affecting dietary cholesterol absorption have been extensively investigated, it is still unclear how biliary cholesterol contributes to the regulation of intestinal cholesterol absorption. We studied whether the gallbladder can modulate the microaggregates of cholesterol carriers, which may in turn influence the intestinal absorption of biliary cholesterol.