In this study, 10 % of patients with unexplained portal hypertension (cryptogenic chronic liver disease) had associated celiac disease. In addition, an unexplained enteropathy was seen in a significant proportion of study patients, more so in patients with cryptogenic chronic liver disease. This finding warrants further investigation.

Virological monitoring of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA is critical to the management of HBV infection. With several HBV DNA quantification assays available, it is important to use the most efficient testing system for virological monitoring. In this study, we evaluated the performance characteristics and comparability of three HBV DNA quantification systems: Abbott HBV real-time PCR (Abbott PCR), artus HBV real-time PCR with QIAamp DNA blood kit purification (artus-DB), and artus HBV real-time PCR with the QIAamp DSP virus kit purification (artus-DSP). The lower limits of detection of these systems were established against the WHO international standards for HBV DNA and were found to be 1.43, 82, and 9 IU/ml, respectively. The intra-assay and interassay coefficients of variation of plasma samples (1 to 6 log 10 IU/ml) ranged between 0.05 to 8.34% and 0.16 to 3.48% for the Abbott PCR, 1.53 to 26.85% and 0.50 to 12.89% for artus-DB, and 0.29 to 7.42% and 0.94 to 3.01% for artus-DSP, respectively. Ninety HBV clinical samples were used for comparison of assays, and paired quantitative results showed strong correlation by linear regression analysis (artus-DB with Abbott PCR, r ‫؍‬ 0.95; Abbott PCR with artus-DSP, r ‫؍‬ 0.97; and artus-DSP with artus-DB, r ‫؍‬ 0.94). Bland-Altman analysis showed a good level of agreement for Abbott PCR and artus-DSP, with a mean difference of 0.10 log 10 IU/ml and limits of agreement of ؊0.91 to 1.11 log 10 IU/ml. No genotype-specific bias was seen in all three systems for HBV genotypes A, C, and D, which are predominant in this region. This finding illustrates that the Abbott real-time HBV and artus-DSP systems show more comparable performance than the artus-DB system, meeting the current guidelines for assays to be used in the management of hepatitis B.

The role of host genetic factors in the pathogenesis and outcome of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is not well known.We assessed the association of HLA and TNF (rs361525, rs1800629, rs1799724, rs1800630 and rs1799964) polymorphisms with HBV outcome in the South Indian population. Association of HLA polymorphism was analyzed in 90 individuals from each group, that is, spontaneous recovery (SR) and chronic-HBV (C-HBV) infection. The role of TNF polymorphisms was evaluated in 150 subjects with SR and 137 patients with C-HBV infection. After adjusting for age and sex, HLA-DRB1*07:01 was strongly associated with chronicity (corrected P-value (pc) o0.005, odds ratio (OR) 3.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.84-7.68). The rs1800630 genotype was associated with HBV outcome in codominant (pco0.01, OR ¼ 1.99, 95% CI 1.30-3.05) and dominant (pco0.01, OR ¼ 2.28, 95% CI 1.35-3.84) analyzing models after adjusting for age and sex. Similarly, the rs1799964 genotype was associated with HBV outcome in codominant (pc ¼ 0.01, OR ¼ 1.57, 95% CI 1.09-2.27) and dominant (pco0.01, OR ¼ 2.21, 95% CI 1.27-3.83) analyzing models. Haplotype analysis (rs1799964/rs1800630/rs1799724/rs1800629/rs361525) revealed that the CACGG haplotype was strongly associated with C-HBV infection (P ¼ 0.0004). Our study suggests that inheritance of HLA and TNF polymorphisms might explain the outcome of HBV infection in the South Indian population.

Architect can be used as a screening assay because of its high sensitivity, high throughput, and short turnaround time. However, S/Co ratios of ≥1 to <8 in Architect necessitates HCV PCR to identify current infection and or EIA to distinguish true positivity from false biological positivity.

Twenty-eight enteroviral isolates obtained from various clinical specimens were typed by Lim-BenyeshMelnick (LBM) pool-based neutralization, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and partial sequencing of the VP1 region of the enteroviral genome. Sequencing was found to be a good alternative to LBM typing, while PCR-RFLP was inadequate for identification of enteroviral isolates.Identification of enterovirus (EV) serotypes is useful to differentiate polioviruses from nonpolio enteroviruses, to study the association of EV types with certain diseases, to identify newer EVs, and for epidemiological surveillance (8). The conventional method for typing of enteroviruses is neutralization with type-specific sera (8) or with an intersecting pool of hyperimmune equine sera, the Lim-Benyesh-Melnick (LBM) pool (5, 6). These methods, in addition to being tedious, timeconsuming, and expensive, may fail to resolve the serotype when there is aggregation of EV strains, antigenic variations, or multiple serotypes of EV in the specimen (8). These disadvantages associated with conventional methods have led to the development of molecular methods like PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) (3, 4) and sequencing of the EV genome for typing of EVs (9, 10, 11). This paper reports the results of a comparison of the LBM pool with PCR-RFLP or partial sequencing of the VP1 region of EV genome for typing of EV isolates.(This research forms part of the Ph.D. thesis work of D. J. Manayani.)Twenty-eight EV isolates tested were obtained from cerebrospinal fluid, brain biopsy, throat, and rectal swab specimens in primary monkey kidney (PMK) or rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cell cultures between September 1998 and August 2000 from patients attending the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India. Stock strains of poliovirus serotypes 1, 2, and 3 and coxsackievirus B (CB) serotypes 3, CB5 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga.), and CB4 (courtesy Gagandeep Kang, Wellcome Research Laboratory, Vellore, India) were also tested. The LBM pools (A to H) (Staten Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark) were used as recommended by the supplier.The 304-bp nested PCR product generated using universal EV primers from the 5Ј noncoding region (5Ј NCR) (1, 2, 7) of EV isolates was subjected to restriction enzyme (RE) analysis with three enzymes, BglI, StyI, and Asp700 (XmnI) (Boehringer Mannheim Roche, Mannheim, Germany) (4).For sequencing, the RNA was extracted from the infectedcell culture supernatant of the RD cell line by using the QIAamp viral RNA kit (Qiagen Gmbh, Hilden, Germany). The primer pairs 012 and 011 or 040 and 011 generated amplicons of approximately 450 bp that span the VP1-2A region of the EV genome (10). Following cycle sequencing with fluorescent dideoxy-chain terminators, the products were sequenced with an automated genetic analyzer (ABI 310 analyzer; PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.). Sequences (GenBank) that match the VP1 sequence of the isolates were identified using BLAST. T...

Background Following a relatively mild first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in India, a deadly second wave of the pandemic overwhelmed the healthcare system due to the emergence of fast-transmitting SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants. The emergence and spread of the B.1.617.2/Delta variant considered to be driving the devastating second wave of COVID-19 in India. Currently, the Delta variant has rapidly overtaken the previously circulating variants to become the dominant strain. Critical mutations in the spike/RBD region of these variants have raised serious concerns about the virus's increased transmissibility and decreased vaccine effectiveness. As a result, significant scientific and public concern has been expressed about the impact of virus variants on COVID-19 vaccines. Objectives The purpose of this article is to provide an additional explanation in the context of the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 variants in India, the vaccine-induced immune response to the variants of concern (VOC), and various vaccine deployment strategies to rapidly increase population immunity. Content Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 isolates circulating in India suggests the emergence and spread of B.1.617 variant. The immunogenicity of currently approved vaccines indicates that the majority of vaccines elicit an antibody response and some level of protection. According to current data, vaccines in the pre-fusion configuration (2p substitution) have an advantage in terms of nAb titer, but the duration of vaccine-induced immunity, as well as the role of T cells and memory B cells in protection, remain unknown. Since vaccine efficacy on virus variants is one of the major factors to be considered for achieving herd immunity, existing vaccines need to be improved or effective next-generation vaccines should be developed to cover the new variants of the virus.

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Our findings suggest that non-response to HBV vaccine is not a major impediment to prevent HAHI. Robust seroprotection rates can be achieved using this indigenous HBV vaccine. However, gender and BMI might influence the level of anti-HBs titers. We recommend the use of this cost effective HBV vaccine as well as postvaccination anti-HBs testing to prevent HAHI among HCWs.