ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT02419625Updated Jul 21, 2016

The Epidemiology of Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Israel and Potential Risk Factors

An interventional study of questionnaires in Chronic Hepatitis E, sponsored by Carmel Medical Center. Status unknown. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2016-07-21.

Sponsored by Carmel Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Screening

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jul 2016), so the status shown — last known as Enrolling by invitation — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
200
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Hepatitis E virus is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus with genome of approximately 7.2kb in length. The HEV genome is capped at the 5' end followed by a small untranslated region of 27 nucleotides and polyadenalated at the 3' end preceded by another UTR of 65 nucleotides . HEV has three open reading frames: ORF1, ORF2 and ORF3 that encode structural and non- structural proteins. ORF1 is the largest one, approximately 5,000 nt in length, located at the 5 ' end and encodes important proteins for the replication process (methyltransferase, papain-like cysteine protease, helicase, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase). A noncoding, hypervariable region within ORF1 displays substantial genetic diversity; this region seems to modulate the efficiency of HEV replication. Notably, the differences in the genome size among different HEV strains are confined mainly to this region .ORF2 is located at the 3' end, encodes structural capsid proteins of 660 amino acids and contains three potential glycosylation sites. The ORF2 protein contains multiple immunogenic sites and neutralizing antibodies are directed against it al., .The essential region in the protein for immunogenicity is 452aa-617aa and the neutralizing epitopes have recently been shown to be conformational .ORF3 is located between the other two reading frames and encodes a small phosphoprotein of 123 amino acids. Its exact function has not been yet determined, however, multiple functions have been proposed. It is thought to interact with cellular mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase and other extracellular kinases, promoting cell survival through activation of intracellular signaling pathways .Moreover, the binding of the ORF3 encoded protein to host-specific proteins seems to influence the pathogenesis of HEV infections .A schematic drawing of the HEV genome is described in Figure 1 .

Read the detailed description

General aim To identify the overall and subgroup-specific HEV sero-prevalence in Israel and examine associations between HEV seropositivity and putative risk factors.

3.2 Specific aims

  • To determine the sero-prevalence of Israeli healthy population.
  • To quantify the sero-prevalence of HEV infections in Israeli healthy population by age, gender, ethnicity, religion.
  • To present the seroprevalence in five specific groups (farmers and swine veterinaries, unexplained acute hepatitis, immunosuppressed transplant recipients, immunosuppressed HIV patients) and identify if these specific population groups are at high risk of HEV sero-prevalence.
  • To identify risk factors associated with an increased risk of HEV sero-prevalence in immunosuppressed transplant patients.
  • To identify risk factors associated with an increased risk of HEV sero-prevalence in farmers and swine veterinaries.
  • To identify the molecular characteristic of HEV in Israel and investigate the similarities to previously published HEV sequences.
  • To identify the incidence of HEV seroconversion/ infection in transplant recipients. (sero-negative pre-transplanted patients will be tested consistently for HEV Ab's and HEV RNA after transplantation)
02

Conditions studied

  • Chronic Hepatitis E
03

In context

Hepatitis E

37 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatitis E; 9 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 200 is below the median of 330 across 26 interventional studies indexed under Hepatitis E.

Browse Hepatitis E studies →

Lead sponsor

Carmel Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 119 studies on the registry; 7 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

  • Patients who are followed-up in Carmel, Lin or Rambam Medical Centers who fulfill one or more of the following criteria and are willing to sign an inform consent
  • Patients with elevated liver enzymes of unknown etiology
  • Patients with acute hepatitis of unknown etiology
  • Patients with chronic infection with , D or C.
  • patients: patients with solid or haemato-oncologic or patients with chronic infection.
  • Patients with chronic liver disease of unknown etiology
  • Participants who have contacts with swines: delivery, feeding, slaughtering, treatment)
  • Healthy volunteers.

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria:

  1. Patients with elevated liver enzymes of unknown etiology
  2. Patients with acute hepatitis of unknown etiology
  3. Patients with chronic infection with hepatitis B , D or C.
  4. Immunosuppressed patients: patients with solid or haemato-oncologic malignancy or patients with chronic HIV infection.
  5. Patients with chronic liver disease of unknown etiology
  6. Participants who have contacts with swines: delivery, feeding, slaughtering, treatment)
  7. Healthy volunteers.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria:

  1. Participants who do not fill the above criteria
  2. Participants who are not willing to sign an inform consent
  3. Participants younger than 18 year old
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Screening
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
200 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Other
    subgroup-specific HEV in Israel

    The study will involve patient interviews using questionnaires

    Behavioral: questionnaires

Interventions

  • Behavioralquestionnaires

    questionnaires , serum samples will be used

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. study will measure the frequency of HEV infection in immune compromised population and in subjects with unexplained elevation of liver enzymes

    Time frame: 2 years

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 21, 2016, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02419625
Responsible party
Eli Zuckerman (head of liver unit, Carmel Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
Apr 17, 2015
Start date
Jun 2015
Primary completion
Apr 2017 (estimated)
Completion
Apr 2017 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 21, 2016

Study contacts

eli zuckerman
principal investigator · Carmel Medical Center

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Jul 2016. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion