Hepatitis C viral kinetics in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells during pegylated interferon-α2a/ribavirin therapy

Background/Aims Analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA kinetics in compartments other than plasma may help in understanding HCV replication and identifying clinically significant patterns of treatment response. Methods After 6 weeks of pegylated interferon-α2a/ribavirin therapy, 74 chronic hepatiti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of hepatology 2008-06, Vol.48 (6), p.932-938
Main Authors: Pugnale, Paolo, Herrmann, Eva, Neumann, Avidan U, Pawlotsky, Jean-Michel, Schalm, Solko W, Ferrari, Carlo, Homburger, Yonit, Zeuzem, Stefan, Negro, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents
Antiviral agents
Antiviral response
Biological and medical sciences
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Gastroenterology. Liver. Pancreas. Abdomen
Hepatitis C virus
Human viral diseases
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
PBMC
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Viral diseases
Viral hepatitis
Viral kinetics
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Summary:Background/Aims Analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA kinetics in compartments other than plasma may help in understanding HCV replication and identifying clinically significant patterns of treatment response. Methods After 6 weeks of pegylated interferon-α2a/ribavirin therapy, 74 chronic hepatitis C patients were randomized to individualized or standard treatments for another 42 weeks. HCV RNA was quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by TaqMan-based real-time PCR and compared to plasma HCV RNA. Results HCV RNA declines in PBMCs and plasma were comparable during the initial 12 weeks of therapy (Spearman’s rank correlation range over different time points, 0.73–0.97). However, a delay of HCV RNA decay in PBMCs, expected if kinetics in PBMCs only reflected kinetics in plasma, was rarely observed. For many patients, HCV RNA decline in PBMCs started as early as in plasma and for some of them the kinetics strongly differed in the two compartments, hinting at a compartment-specific HCV replication and treatment effect. Fast viral decay in PBMCs was associated with sustained virological response, but viral kinetics in PBMCs added only minor predictive information compared with kinetics in plasma. Conclusions Future kinetics studies of HCV RNA during therapy with new antivirals should take into account their compartment-specific effect.
ISSN:0168-8278
1600-0641
DOI:10.1016/j.jhep.2008.02.018