title: Activins and Follistatin in Chronic Hepatitis C and Its Treatment with Pegylated-Interferon-α Based Therapy.
abstract: Pegylated-interferon-α based therapy for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is considered suboptimal as not all patients respond to the treatment and it is associated with several side effects that could lead to dose reduction and/or termination of therapy. The currently used markers to monitor the response to treatment are based on viral kinetics and their performance in the prediction of treatment outcome is moderate and does not combine accuracy and their values have several limitations. Hence, the development of new sensitive and specific predictor markers could provide a useful tool for the clinicians and healthcare providers, especially in the new era of interferon-free therapy, for the classification of patients according to their response to the standard therapy and only subscribing the novel directly acting antiviral drugs to those who are anticipated not to respond to the conventional therapy and/or have absolute contraindications for its use. The importance of activins and follistatin in the regulation of immune system, liver biology, and pathology has recently emerged. This review appraises the up-to-date knowledge regarding the role of activins and follistatin in liver biology and immune system and their role in the pathophysiology of CHC.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-'Abdiyah Campus, P. O. Box 7607, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Bassem
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Refaat
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-'Abdiyah Campus, P. O. Box 7607, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ahmed Mohamed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ashshi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-'Abdiyah Campus, P. O. Box 7607, Makkah, Saudi Arabia ; Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 6515, Egypt.
authors.forename: Adel Galal
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: El-Shemi
authors.affiliation: Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80216, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia ; Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80216, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Esam
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1736-181X
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Azhar
mesh_terms: D028341:Activins / Q000378:metabolism; D038681:Follistatin / Q000378:metabolism; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D038681:Follistatin; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D028341:Activins