Viral hepatitis
Thursday 16 April 2009
Project
Viral hepatitis is the most common cause of acute or chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Worldwide, more than 2 billion people in the world have been infected with hepatitis B virus (350 million carriers). Hepatitis C, the other hepatitis virus responsible for many chronic infections, is also spread all over the world and WHO has estimated that about 180 million people are infected. In the Netherlands, prevalence of both viruses is below 0,5%. But still, several tenthousands of people have been infected.
The immune response to viral antigens is of utmost importance for prevention and treatment of hepatitis B and C. Therefore both basic and clinical studies on viral hepatitis are performed, in mono-infected patients as well as patients coinfected with HIV.
Several projects are running, with the following items:
1. Viral hepatitis B and immunity
Concerning prevention, vaccines play a central role. Our research with HBV is focussed on genetic and non-genetic factors that determine the immune response to hepatitis B vaccine.
2. Molecular factors determining disease and recovery
For hepatitis C currently no vaccine exists. The focus of the hepatitis C research is on genetic polymorphisms in the viral genome as well as on the immune response to hepatitis C after a natural infection, both in relation to response to treatment.
3. New therapies
Clinically new therapies are being investigated, in phase I, II and III studies. These studies are usually multicenter, randomised clinical trials.
These programmes are a collaboration between the departments of Virology, Immunology, Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases. The research on hepatitis covers all phases from molecular biology till phase I, II and III studies, in the Netherlands as well as abroad.
Techniques
Elisa, Cell isolation, culture, PCR and other molecular techniques data-evaluation, statistical analysis.
Duration
6 or 9 months
Contact
Dr. G.J. Boland, tel. 088 75 576 37, G.J.Boland@umcutrecht.nl
Dr. H.Snippe, tel. 088 75 576 28, H.Snippe@umcutrecht.nl
More info
Website UMC Utrecht - Medical Microbiology
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