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Biomedical subjects

A R Jilbert

Publications and source records attributed to A R Jilbert.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Structural and functional homology between duck and chicken interferon-gamma.

The Duck interferon gamma (DuIFN-gamma) cDNA was cloned from a phytohaemaglutinin-stimulated duck spleen cDNA library screened using a chicken IFN-gamma (ChIFN-gamma) cDNA probe. The DuIFN-gamma cDNA is 1392 nt long and shows 99% and 80% sequence identity with another cloned DuIFN-gamma cDNA, and with ChIFN-gamma cDNA, respectively. The cDNA contains a 495 bp ORF that encodes a putative 164 amino acid (AA) protein that shares 67% identity with ChIFN-gamma, but only 30-35% identity with mammalian IFN-gamma. The predicted three-dimensional (3D) structures of DuIFN-gamma and ChIFN-gamma are similar when analysed by comparative protein modelling. Culture supernatant collected from COS cells transfected with DuIFN-gamma cDNA was able to activate nitrite secretion from a chicken macrophage cell line (HD11) in a dose-dependent fashion. This activity could not be neutralised by an anti-ChIFN-gamma monoclonal antibody (Mab 85) that was able to neutralise the activity of ChIFN-gamma. Recombinant DuIFN-gamma (rDuIFN-gamma) protein was expressed in E. coli as an N-terminally His-tagged protein and was purified on a nickel affinity column. The eluted protein, which was detected as a approximately 18 kDa band with a purity of >90%, was also detected by Western blot using the anti-ChIFN-gamma monoclonal antibody (Mab 9.1). The rDuIFN-gamma was shown to activate nitrite secretion by HD11 cells in a dose-dependent fashion with a specific activity that was approximately 16-fold lower than a rChIFN-gamma control. Two rabbit antisera raised against rDuIFN-gamma were able to neutralise COS cell-expressed DuIFN-gamma activity; one of these also neutralised ChIFN-gamma activity. These findings indicate that DuIFN-gamma shares structural and functional identity with ChIFN-gamma, which is consistent with our previous results which demonstrated cross reactivity with other lymphokines from the two species.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

Kinetics of hepadnavirus loss from the liver during inhibition of viral DNA synthesis.

Hepadnaviruses replicate by reverse transcription, which takes place in the cytoplasm of the infected hepatocyte. Viral RNAs, including the pregenome, are transcribed from a covalently closed circular (ccc) viral DNA that is found in the nucleus. Inhibitors of the viral reverse transcriptase can block new DNA synthesis but have no direct effect on the up to 50 or more copies of cccDNA that maintain the infected state. Thus, during antiviral therapy, the rates of loss of cccDNA, infected hepatocytes (1 or more molecules of cccDNA), and replicating DNAs may be quite different. In the present study, we asked how these losses compared when woodchucks chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus were treated with L-FMAU [1-(2-fluoro-5-methyl-beta-L-arabinofuranosyl) uracil], an inhibitor of viral DNA synthesis. Viremia was suppressed for at least 8 months, after which drug-resistant virus began replicating to high titers. In addition, replicating viral DNAs were virtually absent from the liver after 6 weeks of treatment. In contrast, cccDNA declined more slowly, consistent with a half-life of approximately 33 to 50 days. The loss of cccDNA was comparable to that expected from the estimated death rate of hepatocytes in these woodchucks, suggesting that death of infected cells was one of the major routes for elimination of cccDNA. However, the decline in the actual number of infected hepatocytes lagged behind the decline in cccDNA, so that the average cccDNA copy number in infected cells dropped during the early phase of therapy. This observation was consistent with the possibility that some fraction of cccDNA was distributed to daughter cells in those infected hepatocytes that passed through mitosis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Lamivudine therapy of WHV-infected woodchucks.

Hepatitis B viruses establish a chronic, productive, and noncytopathic infection of hepatocytes. Viral products are produced by transcription from multiple copies (5-50) of covalently closed circular (ccc) viral DNA. This cccDNA does not replicate, but can be replaced by DNA precursors that are synthesized in the cytoplasm. The present study was carried out to determine if long-term treatment with an inhibitor of viral DNA synthesis would lead to loss of virus products, including cccDNA, from the liver of woodchucks chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus. Viral DNA synthesis was inhibited with the nucleoside analog, lamivudine (2'-deoxy-3'-thiacytidine). Lamivudine treatment produced a slow but progressive decline in viral titers in serum, to about 0.3% or less of the initial level. However, even after maintenance of drug therapy for 3-12 months, > 95% of the hepatocytes in most animals were still infected. Significant declines in the percentage of infected hepatocytes and of intrahepatic cccDNA levels were observed in only three woodchucks, two in the group receiving lamivudine and one in the placebo control group. Moreover, virus titers eventually rose in woodchucks receiving lamivudine, suggesting that drug-resistant viruses began to spread through the liver starting at least as early as 9-12 months of treatment. Three types of mutation that may be associated with drug resistance were found at this time, in a region upstream of the YMDD motif in the active site of the viral reverse transcriptase. The YMDD motif itself remained unchanged. Not unexpectedly, the lamivudine therapy did not have a impact on development of liver cancer.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Characterization of age- and dose-related outcomes of duck hepatitis B virus infection.

Experimental inoculation of naive ducks with duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) can lead to one of three outcomes, namely, persistent viremia, transient infection with or without viremia, or no evidence of infection. The ability of individual ducks to resolve DHBV infection was found to be linked to the age of the duck at the time of inoculation and the dose of inoculated virus. (1) In recently hatched ducks inoculated intravenously (i.v.) with 4 x 10(4) DHBV DNA genomes, a switch from persistent viremia to transient antibody appearance was seen at an age of inoculation between 7 and 14 days. A 25-fold increase in the dose of virus (1 x 10(6) DHBV genomes) delayed this switch by 7 days. (2) When 4-month-old ducks were inoculated i.v. with different doses of virus, only those receiving the highest dose (2 x 10(11) DHBV genomes) showed viremia and extensive viral replication and histological changes in the liver; 2/3 ducks in this group had a transient infection, while the third duck had viral replication and histological changes in the liver that were still present at day 120 postinoculation (p.i.). In all ducks receiving lower doses (1 x 10(3), 1 x 10(6), 1 x 10(9) DHBV genomes) antibodies to viral surface and core antigens developed without detectable viral replication in the liver on days 6, 9, or 12 p.i. (3) When 10- to 16-month-old ducks were inoculated i.v. with 2 x 10(11) DHBV genomes, all showed extensive viral replication in hepatocytes and mild to moderate histological changes in the liver on days 4 or 6 p.i. In 4/5 ducks viremia was not detected, anti-surface antibodies were first detected on day 8 p.i., and viral DNA and antigen were cleared from the liver by days 35-47 p.i. The remaining duck became viremic with persistence of virus in the liver until at least day 46 p.i. The findings of the study are consistent with a model for noncytopathic viruses (R. M. Zinkernagel (1996) Science 271, 173-178).

Age Factors↗
PubMed1998

Protective efficacy of DNA vaccines against duck hepatitis B virus infection.

The efficacy of DNA vaccines encoding the duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) pre-S/S and S proteins were tested in Pekin ducks. Plasmid pcDNA I/Amp DNA containing the DHBV pre-S/S or S genes was injected intramuscularly three times, at 3-week intervals. All pre-S/S and S-vaccinated ducks developed total anti-DHBs and specific anti-S antibodies with similar titers reaching 1/10,000 to 1/50,000 and 1/2,500 to 1/4,000, respectively, after the third vaccination. However, following virus challenge, significant differences in the rate of virus removal from the bloodstream and the presence of virus replication in the liver were found between the groups. In three of four S-vaccinated ducks, 90% of the inoculum was removed between <5 and 15 min postchallenge (p.c.) and no virus replication was detected in the liver at 4 days p.c. In contrast, in all four pre-S/S-vaccinated ducks, 90% of the inoculum was removed between 60 and 90 min p.c. and DHBsAg was detected in 10 to 40% of hepatocytes. Anti-S serum abolished virus infectivity when preincubated with DHBV before inoculation into 1-day-old ducklings and primary duck hepatocyte cultures, while anti-pre-S/S serum showed very limited capacity to neutralize virus infectivity in these two systems. Thus, although both DNA vaccines induced high titers of anti-DHBs antibodies, anti-S antibodies induced by the S-DNA construct were highly effective in neutralizing virus infectivity while similar levels of anti-S induced by the pre-S/S-DNA construct conferred only very limited protection. This phenomenon requires further clarification, particularly in light of the development of newer HBV vaccines containing pre-S proteins and a possible discrepancy between anti-HBs titers and protective efficacy.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

An homologous in vitro assay to detect lymphokines released by PHA-activated duck peripheral blood lymphocytes and spleen cells.

When stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin duck lymphocytes released lymphokines which were detected by their ability to maintain the proliferation of duck lymphoblasts using an in vitro assay similar to that previously developed with the mammalian system to measure IL-2. The inability of duck lymphokines to maintain the proliferation of mammalian lymphoblasts (mouse) indicated that there was no functional homology between duck and mammalian lymphokines. However, duck lymphokines did maintain the proliferation of chicken lymphoblasts indicating functional homology of these growth factors between these two species. The duck lymphokine maintenance assay is a simple and reliable test, and should be useful as an in vitro assay for the detection of factors released by antigen-specific lymphocytes when cultured in the presence of viral antigens.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Kinetics of duck hepatitis B virus infection following low dose virus inoculation: one virus DNA genome is infectious in neonatal ducks.

Using pooled serum from congenitally duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV)-infected ducks as inoculum, we examined the effect of virus dose on the incubation period of infection and on the patterns of spread of virus infection in the liver. The pooled serum inoculum contained 9.5 x 10(9) DHBV genomes per milliliter and had an infectivity titre (ID50) in newly hatched ducks of 1.5 x 10(10) per milliliter with a 95% confidence interval of 3.0 x 10(9) to 6.3 x 10(10) ID50/ml, indicating the equivalence between one DHBV genome and one infectious unit within the limits of the assays. The incubation period of infection was inversely related to the dose of inoculum and the onset of viraemia ranged from Day 6 with the highest dose to Day 14 or 29 with the lowest dose inoculum. To study the spread of virus infection from a low percentage of initially infected cells we inoculated newly hatched ducks intravenously with sufficient DHBV (1.5 x 10(3) ID50) to infect only approximately 0.0001% of total liver cells. DHBV infection first reached detectable levels on Day 4 postinoculation (p.i.) and was detected in approximately 0.035% of hepatocytes, most of which occurred as single cells or pairs of cells, indicating that a number of rounds of infection had occurred with the spread of virus both to adjoining cells, i.e., by cell-to-cell spread, and to cells located in other parts of the liver lobule. Despite some bird-to-bird variation in timing, the percentage of infected hepatocytes increased exponentially with a mean doubling time of 16 hr from Day 4 to Day 14 p.i., by which time replication was seen in > 95% of hepatocytes. This rapid dissemination from a small number of infected hepatocytes suggests that, in neonatal ducks, there are no major delays in virus replication within the liver, that any innate and adaptive defence mechanisms operating during the first 10 to 14 days of infection are insufficient to contain virus spread, and that even a small number of infected hepatocytes produce enough progeny to rapidly infect the remaining hepatocytes.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1996

Identification of duck T lymphocytes using an anti-human T cell (CD3) antiserum.

Duck lymphocytes have not been classified into cells resembling B or T cells of mammals. Reagents used in the past to identify lymphocyte populations in other species have not been useful for this purpose and antibodies raised to duck immunoglobulin bind in high proportions to blood and organ lymphocytes of ducks as well as to their red blood cells. Here we report that a polyclonal rabbit antiserum reacting to the CD3 marker on human T cells has been used to identify duck T lymphocytes. These antibodies react with the intracytoplasmic portion of the human CD3 epsilon chain (amino acids 156-168), an epitope highly conserved between mammals. Immunohistochemical staining with this antiserum of sections of duck lymphoid organs and FACScan analysis of duck lymphoid cell suspensions identified a population of duck lymphocytes with a staining pattern similar to that seen for mammalian T cells. This anti-human CD3 immunoprecipitated a 23 kDa protein from a duck lymphoblast lysate: a size similar to the human CD3 epsilon chain. This is the first direct identification of duck T lymphocytes.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Woodchuck hepatitis virus infections: very rapid recovery after a prolonged viremia and infection of virtually every hepatocyte.

Earlier studies have suggested that transient hepadnavirus infections in mammals are associated with virus replication in a large fraction of hepatocytes. Although the viremia that occurred during transient infections in some individuals would presumably lead to virus replication in all hepatocytes, these studies did not reveal if this was the case. The question of the extent of hepatocyte infection was therefore reinvestigated because of the implications of the results for the mechanisms of virus clearance. Woodchucks were inoculated with woodchuck hepatitis virus, and the course of hepatic infection was determined. These studies indicated that essentially 100% of the hepatocytes became infected in the majority of woodchucks. In 7 of 10 woodchucks, the viral infection was then rapidly cleared from the liver, generally in less than 4 weeks. In another three woodchucks, though productive infection was just as rapidly cleared, viral covalently closed circular DNA remained for weeks to months after other indicators of virus infection had disappeared from the liver. Bromodeoxyuridine labeling and anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen staining to detect hepatocytes passing through S phase indicated an increase in hepatocyte proliferation during the recovery phase of infection. The rate of cell division appeared to be sufficient to replace no more than 2 to 3% of the hepatocytes per day, at the times at which the biopsies were performed. Histopathologic evaluation of the biopsy samples did not provide evidence for a massive amount of liver regeneration. Models to explain virus clearance, with or without massive immune system-mediated destruction of infected hepatocytes, are reviewed.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Postnatal psychosis: a patient's experience with comments by the consulting psychiatrist.

The article describes a patient's experience of postnatal psychosis, a form of bipolar mood disorder which presents as the most severe form of psychological disorder suffered in the postnatal period. Accompanying the patient's description are comments from the consulting psychiatrist involved in the case and description of the three forms of postnatal mood change, i.e. the baby blues, postnatal psychosis and postnatal depression. The article is designed to assist in early recognition of postnatal psychosis, appreciation of the patient's altered state of mind, and encouraging acceptance of psychiatric treatment, all of which are essential for good management of postnatal mood disorders.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1993

Inhibition of duck hepatitis B virus replication by hypericin.

Hypericin was found to be active against a member of the hepatitis B virus family, duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV). After a single 1 h incubation with hypericin, cells stably-transfected with a clone of DHBV stopped producing infectious virus for several days, though virus-like particles continued to be released into the culture medium. Characterization of these virions revealed a buoyant density characteristic of infectious virus preparations and lower than that of virus cores, suggesting that the particles were enveloped. Western blot analysis suggested, however, that the viral preS protein in surface antigen particles and, by inference, in virions, was present in covalently cross-linked aggregates. Evidence of a similar level of aggregation of the core subunit of virion nucleocapsids was not found, nor was there evidence of a similar high level of aggregation of cell-associated core and preS proteins. Hypericin was only slightly virucidal against DHBV and culture medium from treated cultures did not block initiation of infection when added to DHBV susceptible cultures prior to a challenge with infectious DHBV. Thus, the primary antiviral activity of hypericin against DHBV replication appears to be exerted at a late step in viral morphogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Rapid resolution of duck hepatitis B virus infections occurs after massive hepatocellular involvement.

A study was carried out to determine some of the factors that might distinguish transient from chronic hepadnavirus infection. First, to better characterize chronic infection, Pekin ducks, congenitally infected with the duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV), were used to assess age-dependent variations in viremia, percentage of DHBV-infected hepatocytes, and average levels of DNA replication intermediates in the cytoplasm and of covalently closed circular DNA in the nuclei of infected hepatocytes. Levels of viremia and viral DNA were found to peak at about the time of hatching but persisted at relatively constant levels in chronically infected birds up to 2 years of age. The percentage of infected hepatocytes was also constant, with DHBV replication in virtually 100% of hepatocytes in all birds. Next, we found that adolescent ducks inoculated intravenously with a large dose of DHBV also developed massive infection of hepatocytes with an early but low-level viremia, followed by rapid development of a neutralizing antibody response. No obvious quantitative or qualitative differences between transiently and chronically infected liver tissue were detected in the intracellular markers of viral replication examined. However, in the adolescent duck experiment, DHBV infection was rapidly cleared from the liver even when up to 80% of hepatocytes were initially infected. In all of these ducks, clearance of infection was accompanied by only a mild hepatitis, with no evidence that massive cell death contributed to the clearance. This finding suggested that mechanisms in addition to immune-mediated destruction of hepatocytes might make major contributions to clearance of infections, including physiological turnover of hepatocytes in the presence of a neutralizing antibody response and/or spontaneous loss of the capacity of hepatocytes to support virus replication.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

A technique for liver biopsy performed in Pekin ducks using anesthesia with Telazol.

Infection of Pekin ducks with duck hepatitis B virus is a useful model for studying the hepadenoviruses, of which human hepatitis B virus is the prototype. The utility of this model has been limited, however, by the difficulties associated with anesthetizing and obtaining liver biopsies from ducks. We developed a technique using Telazol (13 mg/kg) to anesthetize ducks before surgical biopsy of the liver in ducks infected with duck hepatitis B virus. Eight Pekin ducks infected with duck hepatitis B virus underwent serial biopsies at 4- to 5-week intervals. There was one perioperative death in 34 surgical procedures with no evidence on intra-abdominal sepsis or wound complications. Telazol can be used safely and humanely to anesthetized ducks without the need for general endotracheal anesthesia.

Anesthetics, Dissociative↗
PubMed1991

Cell culture model systems to study HDV expression, replication and pathogenesis.

Due to the transient nature of HDV replication in natural and experimental hosts and to the inability of the virus to replicate in easily handled cell lines, studies of the replication and expression of HDV have been impeded. These difficulties have been overcome by the development of the cell lines described in this paper.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Hepatitis delta virus RNA, protein synthesis and associated cytotoxicity in a stably transfected cell line.

A trimer of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) cDNA in a retrovirus expression vector was transfected into subclone of the PLC/PRF/5 human hepatoma cell line, and a stable cell line (H1 delta 9) was clonally selected that supported the synthesis of both genomic and antigenomic sense HDV RNA. The H1 delta 9 cell line also expressed hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg) in cell nuclei in three distinct morphological patterns, including patterns typically seen in HDV-infected livers. HDAg expression was restricted to the smaller (p24) of the two HDAg-associated polypeptides in early passages of the H1 delta 9 cell line, but continuous passage of the cells resulted in increasing of expression of the larger (p27) HDAg-specific polypeptide. Passage of the H1 delta 9 cells also led to sustained expression of monomeric HDV RNA and a reduction in the levels of dimeric- and trimeric-HDV RNA. This was accompanied by an attenuation of virus-related cytotoxicity which was a feature of early cell passage numbers. HDV RNA replication in these cells was resistant to actinomycin D suggesting that replication was not dependent on continued expression from the transfected HDV cDNA and thus was likely to be self-sustaining.

Blotting, Northern↗
PubMed1990

Use of recombinant hepatitis delta antigen in diagnostic assays for HDV antibody.

The gene encoding the hepatitis delta virus (HDV) structural antigen (HD Ag) was inserted into a Rous sarcoma virus expression vector and the recombinant plasmid used to direct the synthesis of recombinant HD Ag (rHD Ag) in a continuous hepatoma cell line. A competitive radioimmunoassay for serum antibody to HDV using rHD Ag was developed and was found to be equally suitable for diagnostic purposes to a radioimmunoassay using infected liver-derived HD Ag. Similarly, rHD Ag was shown to be serologically equivalent to liver-derived HD Ag within the limit of the blocking titrations performed. The rHD Ag-positive cell line was also used in an indirect immunofluorescence assay to detect anti-HD. Similar titres of anti-HD were detected by both radioimmunoassay and immunofluorescence and identical samples were positive for anti-HD by either assay. In a sample of prison inmates with high prevalence of both HBV and HDV, anti-HD was confined almost exclusively to those with persistent HBV infection and not to those in whom HBV infection had cleared. The availability of rHD Ag will permit wider development of diagnostic anti-HD assays, and the use of two such assays is presented in this study.

Antigens, Viral↗