Analysis of neutralizing antibodies against hepatitis C virus in patients who were treated with pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin.

The role of neutralizing antibodies (NAb) in determining responses to antiviral therapy has not been defined well. By using hepatitis C virus (HCV) cell culture system with the J6/JFH1 strain of HCV genotype 2a, we analyzed NAb responses in patients with chronic hepatitis C who received pegylated-interferon plus ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) antiviral therapy. A total of 65 patients chronically infected with HCV genotype 1b were enrolled in this study. Of all the 65 patients, 34 (52%) patients achieved early virological response (EVR), with the remaining 31 patients (48%) being Non-EVR. Twenty-seven patients (42%) achieved sustained virological response (SVR), with the remaining 38 patients (58%) being Non-SVR. Thus, NAb titers were significantly higher in sera of patients who achieved EVR and SVR than those of Non-EVR and Non-SVR, respectively. Rather unexpectedly, NAb titers did not significantly decrease when measured even one year after disappearance of HCV RNA. On the other hand, when change ratios of NAb titers before and after disappearance of HCV RNA were compared between patients with different treatment outcomes, we noticed that the change ratio of NAb titers of patients who achieved an EVR was significantly lower than that of Non-SVR. In conclusion, our present results suggest that NAb titers were significantly associated with clinical responses to PEG-IFN/RBV therapy.