Aim of antiviral therapy of patients with chronic hepatitis C is the sustained elimination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The standard of care (SOC) is peginterferon alfa-2a/-2b with ribavirin for 48 weeks or 24 weeks in patients infected with HCV genotype 1 or 2/3, respectively. Overall, approximately half of the patients can be cured by SOC. Based on baseline viral load and the speed of viro...

Recent advances in treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus have improved significantly due to the introduction of two new protease inhibitors-telaprevir and boceprevir. In combination with the previous standard of care, peginterferon and ribavirin, telaprevir and boceprevir have demonstrated improved sustained virologic response rates for HCV genotype 1 patients by approximately 30%. The purpose...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Genetic variations near the interferon lambda 3 gene (IFNL3, IL28B) are the most powerful predictors for sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, compared to other biochemical or histological baseline parameters. We evaluated whether the interplay of both IFNL3 polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917 together with non-geneti...

BACKGROUND Inflammatory gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) is altered in chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection. Duration of changes after pegylated interferon- (peg-IFN-) based HCV treatment is unclear. METHODS PBMC mRNA expression of 184 inflammatory response genes was analyzed (nCounter GX Human Inflammation Kit, Nanostring) from peg-IFN treatment nonresponder...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and demographic/clinical factors of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) abnormalities at the end of treatment (EOT) in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients with sustained virologic response (SVR). METHODS AND FINDINGS Seven hundred naïve CHC patients who underwent combination treatment between January 2003 and December 2010 were i...

Despite a substantial progress in the management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection for the last decade, the probability of achieving sustained virologic response (SVR) in genotype 1 infection just ranges from 40% to 55% with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) for 48 weeks which has been the standard-of-care. Furthermore, a variety of adverse events associated with PEG-IFN and...

Studies of IL-28B genotype in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2/3 infection have yielded conflicting results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to obtain a pooled odds ratio (OR) of the impact of IL-28B genotype on achieving sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with HCV genotype 2/3 infection treated with pegIFN and ribavirin. A meta-analysis with a random effects model...

There is evidence that hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, like HIV infection, may be associated with chronic inflammation, immune activation, and immune senescence, which contribute to increased risks for cardiometabolic or other diseases outside the liver, as well as to ongoing damage in the liver. These effects may persist after a sustained virologic response (SVR) is achieved with HCV therap...

BACKGROUND IL28B gene polymorphism is the best baseline predictor of response to interferon alfa-based antiviral therapies in chronic hepatitis C. Recently, a new IFN-L4 polymorphism was identified as first potential functional variant for induction of IL28B expression. Individualization of interferon alfa-based therapies based on a combination of IL28B/IFN-L4 polymorphisms may help to optimize...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with lymphoproliferative disorders and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHLs). Evaluation of the efficacy and safety profiles of different antiviral therapies in HCV patients with B-NHL is warranted. METHODS First, we evaluated the sustained virologic response (SVR) and safety of Peg-interferon-alpha (Peg-IFN) + ribavirin +/- first protease inhib...