Prediction of Treatment Response Improved by Genotyping Hepatitis C Patients

David Booth of the University of Sydney, Australia and colleagues have reported that genotyping hepatitis C patients for the IL28B, HLA-C and KIR genes substantially improves doctors' ability to predict whether or not patients will respond to antiviral treatment. The report appears in this week's PLoS Medicine. The results of the study suggest that an interaction between IL28B, HLA-C and KIRs provides a mechanism for hepatitis C viral control and highlight new insights into how the drug combination of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin clears hepatitis C virus infections, findings that may lead to improved therapies in the future. The findings have yet to be confirmed in patients of non-European descent.



Source-Eurekalert