Decline of hepatitis C virus load in serum during the first 24 h after administration of interferon-beta as a predictor of the efficacy of therapy.
OBJECTIVE
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) kinetics during interferon (IFN)-alpha treatment have been evaluated recently, however, little is known about the resultant viral kinetics in IFN-beta treatment. In this study, we evaluated HCV kinetics during the first 24 h of IFN-beta treatment, and also assessed their relationship to therapeutic outcomes.


METHODS
We measured HCV RNA levels at 0 and 24 h after the initiation of IFN-beta treatment, and we calculated the decay slope, viral half-life, and viral production and clearance. Then we analyzed these factors as they related to therapeutic responses with IFN-beta as well as to clinical variables, i.e. genotype, diversity of hyper variable region, and histological findings.


RESULTS
Patients with sustained responses (SR) displayed steeper decay slopes of the viral load than those without SR (2.87 +/- 1.41 vs. 1.82 +/- 1.66, P = 0.031). On the other hand, the decay slope was not affected by the clinical variables. The values of viral half-life and viral production and clearance showed no significant correlation to the response and the clinical variables.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that the decay slope of the viral load during the first 24 h is related to the virological response to IFN-beta treatment.
Fukutomi
T
T
Department of Medicine, Fukuoka City Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan.
Nakamuta
M
M
Fukutomi
M
M
Iwao
M
M
Watanabe
H
H
Hiroshige
K
K
Tanabe
Y
Y
Nawata
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D013997:Time Factors; D014766:Viremia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D012367:RNA, Viral; D016899:Interferon-beta