BACKGROUND IL28B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play important roles in the management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and are strongly associated with spontaneous and treatment-induced HCV clearance. OBJECTIVES In the present study, the association between IL28B variants and the progression of HCV infection in Egyptian patients infected with type 4a virus will be examined. PA...

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Age is one of the predictors for sustained virological response (SVR) when treating chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients with pegylated-interferon/ribavirin (PegIFN/RBV). However, the treatment responses of the young patients had not been analyzed before. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the treatment responses of CHC patients younger than 40 years old (y...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Monotherapy with standard or pegylated interferon (PegIFN) remains the first-line treatment for HCV infection in patients with thalassemia major (βTM), although its long-term impact is still unknown. We aimed to assess the efficacy of IFN-a2b/PegIFN-a2b (one or multiple treatment sessions) and the predictors for sustained virological response (SVR) in HCV-infected βTM patients...

BACKGROUND Ribavirin blood levels vary considerably between patients with standard weight-based dosing. Their impact on sustained virological response (SVR) with pegylated interferon and ribavirin is controversial, but has mostly been studied before the IL28b gene polymorphism as a possible confounder was discovered. METHODS The impact of serum ribavirin trough levels at week 4, at the end of...

Until recently, the standard treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was a combination therapy with PEG-IFN-α plus ribavirin. Previous studies have proven that several markers predict the outcome of such therapy, e.g., pretreatment plasma levels of interferon inducible protein IP-10, HCV RNA and IL28B-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Altered activity of tryptophan m...

BACKGROUND Ribavirin (RBV) is an essential component of most current hepatitis C (HCV) treatment regimens and still standard of care in the combination with pegylated interferon (pegIFN) to treat chronic HCV in resource limited settings. Study results in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients are contradicting as to whether RBV concentration correlates with sustained virological response (SVR). METHODS ...

Combination therapy of pegylated interferonwith ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) is a standard of care for chronic hepatitis C (CHC). The majority of CHC patients are infected with HCV genotype I. The recent discovery revealed by a genome-wide association study technology provides the important role of interleukin-28B (IL28B) and inosine triphosphatase (ITPA) in HCV infection. In addition, response to P...

UNLABELLED We assessed the cost-effectiveness of sofosbuvir (SOF)-based triple therapy (TT) compared with boceprevir (BOC)- and telaprevir (TVR)-based TT in untreated genotype 1 (G1) chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients discriminated according to IL28B genotype, severity of liver fibrosis, and G1 subtype. The available published literature provided the data source. The target population was made ...

Introduction. With the standard treatment of chronic hepatitis C, sustained virological response (SVR) can be achieved only in half of all patients. Interleukin-28B appears to be involved in the control of HCV infection, and the genetic polymorphism of the encoding IL-28B gene may determine the efficacy of clearance of HCV. The aim of this paper was to detect IL-28B gene polymorphism in Latvia ...