BACKGROUND Some chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), genotype 1 infected patients treated with direct antiviral agents (DAAs) remain viremic at end of treatment (EOT+), yet go on to achieve sustained virological response 12 weeks after completion of therapy (SVR12). The incidence of EOT+/SVR in patients with genotype 1 and other genotypes, as well as whether such patients achieve SVR24 remain in qu...

BACKGROUND More than ten million Egyptians are infected with HCV. Every one of them is going to infect about three to four persons every year. Treating those patients is a matter of national security. A dramatic improvement in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treatment was achieved in the last five years. A new era of direct-acting antivirals is now dawning in Egypt. OBJECTIVE(S) We share in...

The development of direct acting antiviral agents against the hepatitis C virus has revolutionized treatment paradigms for hepatitis C. In 2011 the first HCV protease inhibitors boceprevir and telaprevir were approved, which still needed to be combined with pegylated interferon and ribavirin and were only usable in patients with genotype 1. However, the new triple therapy achieved successful cu...

Background and Aims: Recurrent infection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in liver transplant (LT) recipients is universal and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir with and without ribavirin in LT recipients with recurrent genotype 1 hepatitis C. Results: Eighty-five LT recipients were treated for r...

Corresponding Author: Luca Rinaldi, MD; [email protected] Abstract – Background and AIM Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a frequent complication of HCV liver cirrhosis. The reduction of risk after the clearance of HCV-RNA is debated. The aim of our study was to detect the appearance of HCC during the follow-up after antiviral treatment with direct acting antiviral therapy. Patients and Me...

Twelve-week sustained viral response (SVR) rates ranging from 94% to 99% have been reported in treatmentexperienced patients infected with genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection following 12 to 24 weeks of therapy with sofosbuvir (Sovaldi, Gilead) and ledipasvir (fixed-dose combination) with or without ribavirin. The study population included patients with cirrhosis and those who failed p...

After entering hepatocytes, the viral genome of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is translated into a single polypeptide. This polypeptide is subsequently cleaved into viral proteins, including non-structural (NS) proteins NS3, NS4A, NS5B and NS5B RNA dependent RNA polymerase (Figure 1) [3, 4]. These viral proteins are essential for viral replication and assembly making them significant targets for ...

In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Eric Lawitz and colleagues report results from their randomised phase 2 trial, in which they showed a more than 90% cure rate of hepatitis C in patients given a combination of pegylated interferon alfa-2a (peginterferon), ribavirin, and sofosbuvir, a novel nucleoside inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B polymerase. Among the 60 or so drugs under devel...

UNLABELLED Antiviral therapy for recurrent hepatitis C in liver transplant recipients has been associated with low efficacy, poor tolerability, and drug-drug interactions. Recent approval of various hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals has resulted in improvement of these parameters. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of 12 week all-oral interferon- and ribavirin-free therapy with sofosbuvir ...