Hepatitis C Virus Life Cycle and Lipid Metabolism

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infects over 150 million people worldwide. In most cases HCV infection becomes chronic, causing liver disease ranging from fibrosis to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV affects the cholesterol homeostasis and at the molecular level, every step of the virus life cycle is intimately connected to lipid metabolism. In this review, we present an update on the lipids and apolipoproteins that are involved in the HCV infectious cycle steps: entry, replication and assembly. Moreover, the result of the assembly process is a lipoviroparticle, which represents a peculiarity of hepatitis C virion. This review illustrates an example of an intricate virus-host interaction governed by lipid metabolism

THE BALNEOCLIMATIC RESORT STÂNA DE VALE - PAST, PRESENT, PERSPECTIVES

Stâna de Vale balneoclimatic resort, located in the Apuseni Mountains, is very little valorised. The special natural setting, with the picturesque landscapes, the tourist trails of various difficulty degrees, the oligomineral waters, the numerous waterfalls, the fresh air intensely ionized, without pollutants and allergens, generated by the deciduous and coniferous forests, the exciting-soliciting bioclimate etc. recommend Stâna de Vale as a resort having a remarkable touristic potential, but very little harnessed and this is why it is necessary to identify solutions for its tourist valorisation. This paper highlights the periods of development and of decline of this resort which used to be emblematic for the Apuseni Mountains and for Bihor County and in the end, it suggests some simple solutions to revitalize the resort

The influenza season 2016/17 in Bucharest, Romania – surveillance data and clinical characteristics of patients with influenza-like illness admitted to a tertiary infectious diseases hospital

ABSTRACT Background: Influenza continues to drive seasonal morbidity, particularly in settings with low vaccine coverage. Objectives: To describe the influenza cases and viral circulation among hospitalized patients. Methods: A prospective study based on active surveillance of inpatients with influenza-like illness from a tertiary hospital in Bucharest, Romania, in the season 2016/17. Results: A total of 446 patients were tested, with a balanced gender distribution. Overall, 192 (43%) patients tested positive for influenza, with the highest positivity rate in the age groups 3–13 years and >65 years. Peak activity occurred between weeks 1 and 16/2017, with biphasic distribution: A viruses were replaced by B viruses from week 9/2017; B viruses predominated (66.1%). Among the 133 (69.3%) subtyped samples, all influenza A were subtype H3 (n = 57) and all influenza B were B/Victoria (n = 76). Patients who tested positive for influenza presented fewer comorbidities (p = 0.012), except for the elderly, in whom influenza was more common in patients with comorbidities (p = 0.050). Disease evolution was generally favorable under antiviral treatment. The length of hospital stay was slightly longer in patients with influenza-like illness who tested patients negative for influenza (p = 0.031). Conclusions: Distinctive co-circulation of A/H3 and B/Victoria in Bucharest, Romania in the 2016/17 influenza season was found. While the A/H3 subtype was predominant throughout Europe that season, B/Victoria appears to have circulated specifically in Romania and the Eastern European region, predominantly affecting preschoolers and school children