Effect of interferon alfa on the dynamics of hepatitis C virus turnover in vivo

Hepatology : Official Journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases
S ZeuzemW K Roth

Abstract

In about 30% to 40% of patients with chronic hepatitis C, treatment with recombinant interferon alfa (r-IFN alpha) causes a decrease of serum aminotransferases and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA. The antiviral mechanism of interferon alfa (IFN alpha) in vivo is unknown. From serial measurements of serum HCV-RNA concentrations following IFN alpha induced perturbation of the balance between virus production and clearance, we obtained kinetic information on the pretreatment steady-state of HCV. In patients with chronic hepatitis C responding to IFN alpha, HCV-RNA declined exponentially with a half life of approximately 2 days. Modeling of the data predicts that in patients with chronic hepatitis C responding to IFN alpha this cytokine predominantly acts as an inhibitor of de novo infection of susceptible cells. HCV is released from infected cells with a mean half life of 2.7 +/- 1.3 days, whereas the clearance rate from serum is faster (mean half life, 0.7 +/- 0.4 days). The minimum virus production and clearance per day in patients with chronic hepatitis C was calculated to be 6.7 x 10(10) virions/d (range, 0.2 to 43.8 x 10(10) virions/d). These values showed no correlation with the HCV genotype, aminotransferase levels, or the hist...Continue Reading

Citations

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