Search results for "HEPATITIS C VIRUS"
showing 10 items of 403 documents
Hepatitis C virus: Current steps toward elimination in Germany and barriers to reaching the 2030 goal
2021
Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects over 70 million people globally, with an estimated 399 000 HCV‐related deaths in 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal to eliminate HCV by 2030. Despite the availability of direct‐acting antivirals—highly effective and well‐tolerated therapies for HCV—many patients infected with HCV in Germany have not initiated treatment, including a majority of those who are aware of their positive diagnosis. Barriers to screening, diagnosis, and treatment are major factors taking many countries off track for HCV elimination by 2030. Identifying country‐specific barriers and challenges, particularly in at‐risk populations such as people who injec…
Hepatitis C virus infection and global kidney health: the consensus proceedings of the International Federation of Kidney Foundations
2020
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important cause of major morbidities including chronic liver disease, liver cancer, and acute kidney injury (AKI) as well as chronic kidney disease (CKD). HCV can affect kidney health; among CKD and AKI patients with HCV infection, the clinical outcomes are worse. The prevalence of HCV infection is exceptionally high among dialysis and kidney transplant patients throughout the globe. It is estimated that 5% to 25% or more of dialysis dependent patients are affected by chronic HCV, based on the region of the world. Almost half of all deaths in CKD patients, including HCV-infected patients, are due to cardiovascular disease, and HCV infected patients ha…
Hepatitis C virus resistance to new specifically-targeted antiviral therapy: A public health perspective
2012
Until very recently, treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been based on the combination of two non-viral specific drugs: pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin, which is effective in, overall, about 40%-50% of cases. To improve the response to treatment, novel drugs have been designed to specifically block viral proteins. Multiple compounds are under development, and the approval for clinical use of the first of such direct-acting antivirals in 2011 (Telaprevir and Boceprevir), represents a milestone in HCV treatment. HCV therapeutics is entering a new expanding era, and a highly-effective cure is envisioned for the first time since the discovery of the virus in 1989. H…
Peginterferon alfa-2b plus weight-based ribavirin for 24 weeks in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 with low viral load who achieve …
2011
Summary. In chronic hepatitis C (CHC), treatment duration may be individualized according to time to first undetectable hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA, with patients who attain undetectable HCV RNA early in treatment being candidates for shorter regimens. The aim of this study was to determine the relapse rate in patients with CHC genotype (G) 1 infection and low baseline viral load who achieved undetectable HCV RNA by week 4 [rapid virologic response (RVR)] when treated for 24 weeks. This was an open-label, multicentre, noninterventional study. Adult patients with G1 CHC infection and baseline viral load <600,000 IU/mL who attained RVR were treated with peginterferon alfa-2b (1.5 μg/kg/week)…
Chronic hepatitis C and interferon alpha: conventional and cumulative meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials.
1999
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of surrogate markers of the interferon effect (i.e., alanine aminotransferase levels and serum HCV-RNA status) as predictors of long term response, and to identify the optimal schedule of treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C by means of meta-analysis.Pertinent randomized clinical trials and prospective studies were selected using MEDLINE (1986-1996), a reference list from published articles or reviews. Twenty-six prospective studies reporting data on surrogate markers of interferon response were selected. Thirty-nine trials comparing interferon alpha to no treatment and 25 trials comparing different schedules of in…
Hepatitis C virus infection in hemodialyzed patients.
2007
In spite of our present improved knowledge of the epidemiology and pathways of contamination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), infection still remains a public health problem. One category of patients who have suffered greatly from the consequences of HCV infection is certainly that of hemodialysis patients. In the past, in fact, their need for transfusions exposed these patients to infection and, as a result, subjects on dialysis for over 15 years are today paying the price for those inevitable transfusions, as the virus and its pathways of contagion were unknown then. However, still today, albeit at a much lower prevalence, even subjects with a shorter dialysis age present a higher prevalen…
Interleukin 12 enhances deficient HCV-antigen-induced Th1-type immune response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells
1998
The aim of this study was to examine the possible immunomodulating effects of rhIL-12 on the immune response induced by different hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens. Freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 33 patients with chronic HCV infection were stimulated with optimal concentrations of antigens from the NS3, NS4, NS5, and core region of HCV in the absence or presence of interleukin12 (IL-12). Stimulation by α-CD3 + α-CD28, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) were used as controls. Proliferation and cytokine production were determined by 3H-thymidine uptake and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after 72 hr. After stimulation with antigen or a…
Etiological factors of chronic hepatitis in Italy: a 2014 national survey.
2017
Background The last Italian prevalence survey on chronic hepatitis (CH) conducted in 2001 showed that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) was the main agent associated with CH. Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate epidemiological changes in CH occurring after 13 years. Patients and methods Enrollment of 1392 CH consecutive patients referred to 16 Italian liver units in 2014 scattered all over the country (four in the North, four in the Center, four in the South, and four in the Islands) was performed. Results The mean age of the patients was 58.3 years, with a sex ratio (male/female) of 1.5. HCV infection (also with other etiologies) continues to be the most prevalent etiology (58.1%). However…
New developments in the management of hepatitis C virus infection: focus on boceprevir
2012
Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is an important public health problem, and the standard treatment (combination of pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin) has an effectiveness rate of only 40%-50%. Novel virus-specific drugs have recently been designed, and multiple compounds are under development. The approval for the clinical use of direct-acting antivirals in 2011 (boceprevir [BOC] and telaprevir, viral NS3 protease inhibitors) has increased recovery rates by up to 70%. Therefore, a highly effective treatment has been envisioned for the first time. This paper focuses on BOC and the implementation of new BOC-based treatment regimes.
Single-chain antibodies against a plant viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase confer virus resistance.
2004
Crop loss due to viral diseases is still a major problem for agriculture today. We present a strategy to achieve virus resistance based on the expression of single-chain Fv fragments (scFvs) against a conserved domain in a plant viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), a key enzyme in virus replication. The selected scFvs inhibited complementary RNA synthesis of different plant virus RdRps in vitro and virus replication in planta. Moreover, the scFvs also bound to the RdRp of the distantly related hepatitis C virus. T(1) and T(2) progeny of transgenic lines of Nicotiana benthamiana expressing different scFvs either in the cytosol or in the endoplasmic reticulum showed varying degrees of r…