Viral hepatitis - knowledge of upper grade high school students This thesis is focused on the issue of all types of viral hepatitis. The work is divided into two large units. The first part is theoretical and provides a comprehensive overview of all types of viral hepatitis in general. It deals in detail with each type separately; it describes its characteristics, what causes it, its epidemiology, course, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The empirical part investigates the level of knowledge of students of third and fourth grade of high schools from a quantitative survey. It includes pedagogical research, whose task was to determine what knowledge students had acquired during compulsory education, and it also includes evaluation of this research.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a Hepadnaviridae virus infecting mammals. Its infection can result in an acute or chronic infection. Chronic infection can result in hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cirrhosis, potentially leading to death of the patient. HBV is a small 42 nm virus with a genome length of 3.2 kb encoding seven viral proteins. HBV Core protein (HBc) is a capsid forming protein which is pleiotropic in function. We have identified two ubiquitin ligases which could interact with this protein: F-box only protein 3 (FBXO3; E3 ubiquitin ligase) and Ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 O (UBE2O; E2/E3 ubiquitin ligase). By employing multiple methods we have confirmed these interactions. Co- immunoprecipitation and further western blot analysis unveiled multiple new insights into the ligases′ impact on HBc: FBXO3-mediated HBc polyubiquitination stimulation and UBE2O-mediated HBc monoubiquitination promotion. FBXO3's and UBE2O's role in HBV life cycle was investigated as well. By silencing the expression of FBXO3 and UBE2O respectively, we have observed changes in HBV replication levels: FBXO3 serves as an inhibitor of HBV replication, while UBE2O stimulates the course of HBV life cycle. Further investigation of these newly-discovered understandings may lead to a whole new HBV - host interplay...

This thesis is concerned with the level of parents´ awareness and attitudes to above-standard vaccination of children from 0-3 years in Příbram. Among the optional vaccination of children from 0-3 years belong vaccination against pneumococcal disease, rotavirus infections, meningococcal invasive disease (caused by meningococcal of group C, A+C, or A, C, W 135 and Y, now also of group B), tick-borne encephalitis, varicella smallpox, influenza and hepatitis A (or a combination of type A + B). The first part deals with the issue in a theoretical perspective. It foreshadows the basic characteristics of the diseases against which the premium vaccination of children from 0-3 years is offered. Further it is focused on vaccines against these diseases, which can occur in the Czech Republic. The survey is summarized in the research. There were parents of children attending one of the 12 kindergartens in Příbram in the sample of the research. tely 40% of the parents (or mothers) of these children in each kindergarten.The results were summarized in schedules of absolute and relative frequencies, or graphs. It was set three basic goals that were met with five hypotheses. The first of these was to monitor the attitudes of parents to above-standard vaccination of children from 0-3 years in Příbram. To this target relate hypothesis H1: Parents are interested in above-standard vaccination of children from 0-3 years in Příbram, H2: Parents with higher educational level have significantly higher interest in above-standard vaccination of children from 0-3 years and H3: Parents are statistically significantly more interested in vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis than other extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years, due to an endemic area of tick-borne encephalitis in Příbram. These hypotheses were not confirmed statistically. The second aim investigated the main reason for the possible lack of interest in extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years in Příbram. The target was filled with hypothesis H4: The main reason for the possible lack of parents´ interest in extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years is high price of vaccines, which was statistically refuted. The third goal was to explore parents' knowledge about diseases against which the extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years is offered. To this goal was set the hypothesis H5: Parents have sufficient information about the diseases against which the extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years is offered. This hypothesis was confirmed. The hypotheses were verified by ?chi-square? test at a significance level of 5%, which is an instrument of verification or falsification of hypotheses. This work may be used in practice as a preview to the parents´ awareness and interest in extra vaccination of children from 0-3 years. As well as cumulative information materials for professionals and the public about the above-standard vaccination of children from 0-3 years.

This thesis focuses on the importance of the heme catabolic pathway in chronic hepatitis C (HCV). The aim is mainly to investigate, whether expresion/activity of key enzymes of the heme catabolic pathway, heme oxygenase (HMOX) and biliverdin reductase (BLVRA) in the liver and blood (study A) or promoter variations of HMOX1 and UDP- glucuronosyltransferase (UGT1A1) (study B) may be associated with the progression of fibrosis and may also predict antiviral treatment outcome in patients chronically infected with HCV. We set up a new sensitive method to quantify HMOX activity by reduction gas chromatography. We developed and extensively validated RealTime PCR assay for HMOX and BLVRA expression in the liver and peripheral blood leucocytes (PBL). The (GT)n and (TA)n dinucleotide variations in HMOX1 and UGT1A1 gene promoters, respectively, were determined by fragment analysis. No association was detected between either expression of HMOX/BLVRA or the HMOX1/ UGT1A1 promoter variants and the individual histological stages of liver disease in the HCV positive patients. A marked difference in BLVRA expression in PBL between the sustained responders (SVR) and patients with treatment failure (NVR) was detected before antiviral treatment and during the follow-up. Our data suggests, that BLVRA basal expression...