title: Addressing the Challenges of Hepatitis C Virus Resistance and Treatment Failure.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis C is a major cause of chronic liver disease, including liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The development of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) revolutionized hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment by offering genuine prospects for the first comprehensive cure of a chronic viral infection in humans. While antiviral resistance is a significant limitation for interferon-based therapies, resistance and treatment failure still appear to be present in a small fraction of patients even in state-of-the-art DAA combination therapies. Therefore, treatment failure and resistance still remain a clinical challenge for the management of patients not responding to DAAs. In this special issue of Viruses on HCV drug resistance, mechanisms of antiviral resistance for different classes of antiviral drugs are described. Furthermore, the detection and monitoring of resistance in clinical practice, the clinical impact of resistance in different patient groups and strategies to prevent and address resistance and treatment failure using complementary antiviral strategies are reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche sur les Maladies Virales et Hépatiques, Inserm, U1110, 3 rue Koeberlé, 67000 Strasbourg, France. colpitts@unistra.fr.|Université de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France. colpitts@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Che C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Colpitts
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche sur les Maladies Virales et Hépatiques, Inserm, U1110, 3 rue Koeberlé, 67000 Strasbourg, France. thomas.baumert@unistra.fr.|Université de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France. thomas.baumert@unistra.fr.|Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire, Pôle Hépato-Digestif, Hopitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France. thomas.baumert@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Baumert
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D024882:Drug Resistance, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D017211:Treatment Failure
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents
keywords: antiviral resistance; antiviral therapy; hepatitis C virus; treatment failure