Typical acute hepatitis was reproduced in a human volunteer immune to hepatitis A virus (HAV) after oral administration of pooled stool extracts from presumed cases of epidemic non-A, non-B hepatitis. Markers of hepatitis B infection, anti-HAV IgM, and increase in total anti-HAV level were not detectable in the volunteer’s sera during the course of infection. Spherical 27- to 30-nm virus-like particles were visualized by immune electron microscopy (IEM) in stool samples collected during preclinical and early postclinical phases. These particles banded in CsCl at a buoyant density of 1.35 g/cm3. They reacted in the IEM test with sera from individuals who had experienced two non-B hepatitis episodes but did not react with sera from routine anti-HAV IgM-positive hepatitis patients. Intravenous inoculation of cynomolgus monkeys with the virus-containing stool extract resulted in histopathologically and enzymatically confirmed hepatitis, excretion of virus-like particles, and antibody response to them.
Different patterns of disease were observed among 11 chimpanzees who were inoculated intravenously with hepatitis E virus (HEV) positive fecal specimens from four different outbreaks (Nepal 1981, Uzbekistan 1981, Pakistan 1985, and Mexico 1986). Five chimpanzees had marginal or no liver enzyme elevations within 70 days of inoculation. Two of the chimpanzees had limited viremia, but did not produce detectable antibody. The four remaining chimpanzees had liver enzyme elevations, viral shedding, viremia, seroconversion to anti-HEV, and detectable HEV antigen in liver biopsy specimens. These results may reflect the range of infection patterns that develop in humans after natural exposure to the HEV.
The genome of hepatitis A virus (HAV) isolated from spontaneously infected African vervet monkey (Cercopithecus aerhiops) has been cloned and partially sequenced. Comparison of genome fragments (1248 and 162 bp) from the 3D (RNA polymerase) region with the corresponding parts of human HAV genomes revealed a high degree of heterogeneity: there were altogether 257 nucleotide changes leading to 44 substitutions in predicted amino acid sequence, i.e. 89% amino acid identity. This divergence is considered to be significantly greater than genomic variations usually found among human HAV strains, where amino acid identity in the 3D region is over 98%.
Among 61 patients admitted for non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis to Hôpital Beaujon, 10 had returned from Asia or Africa, and 51 had not been outside France, within the month preceding jaundice. This suggests that hepatitis might have been contracted in Asia or Africa in the former, and in France in the latter. The interval between the onset of jaundice and the onset of hepatic encephalopathy was 10 days in the former and 26 days in the latter (P less than 0.03). The serum of the patient returning from Asia contained, and the sera of the nine patients returning from Africa did not contain, antibodies to a virus isolated from the stools of patients suffering from an epidemic fecal-oral non-A, non-B viral hepatitis in Central Asia. It is concluded that infection with Asian-African non-A, non-B viruses can be the cause of fulminant hepatitis in persons returning from these countries, that the course of this type of non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis is shorter than that of non-A, non-B fulminant hepatitis contracted in France, and that different viruses might be responsible for non-A, non-B hepatitis in Asia and Africa.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.