Differential response to pegylated interferon plus ribavirin combination therapy in chronic hepatitis C and HIV/HCV co-infected patients

Zhonghua gan zang bing za zhi = Zhonghua ganzangbing zazhi = Chinese journal of hepatology
Bo LiuXiao-ping Tang

Abstract

To investigate the potential differences in response to pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) combination therapy in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) mono-infection and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/HCV co-infection. Seventy HIV/HCV patients and sixty HCV patients, were administered a 48-week course of Peg-IFN + RBV. The HCV load was tested by the COBAS automatic viral load analysis system (lower limit of quantification = 15 IU/ml) at treatment weeks 0 (baseline), 4, 12, 24, and 48 and at week 24 after drug withdrawal. The patients were also genotyped by sequencing for the host-encoded interleukin (IL)-28B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to HCV Peg-IFN + RBV therapy outcome: rs8099917, rs12979860 and rs12980275. In addition, the HCV-encoded NS5B gene region was genotyped by nested-PCR and sequencing followed by BLAST searching of the Los Alamos National Laboratory HCV database. The significance of between-group differences in response to therapy and roles of SNPs were evaluated by statistical analyses. The ratio of sustained virological response (SVR) was significantly lower in the HIV/HCV co-infected patients than the HCV mono-infected patients (32.9% vs. 71.7%; P less than 0.001). While ...Continue Reading

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