Immune-based therapy for chronic hepatitis C.
Chronic, persistent HCV infection is a public health issue. It often progresses to life-threatening complications, including liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The current standard therapy is a combination of pegylated IFN-alpha and ribavirin. This therapy results in a sustained virologic response in only 50% of patients infected with HCV genotype 1 and is often accompanied with substantial side-effects. Therefore, it is imperative to develop novel therapies with higher efficacy and less substantial side-effects. Impaired immune responses to HCV are key features of chronic HCV infection; thus, intervention strategies typically involve boosting the immune responses against HCV. These immune-based therapies for chronic HCV infection include therapeutic vaccines, antagonists of T cell inhibitory factors, anti-HCV neutralizing antibodies, cytokines, and agonists for TLRs. Currently, various types of immune-based therapies are under development that might be used as a monotherapy or in combination with other antiviral drugs for the treatment of chronic HCV infection.
Chang
Dong-Yeop
DY
Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea.
Shin
Eui-Cheol
EC
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*