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Immune-based novel therapies for chronic hepatitis C virus infection

  • Feature … Practice of Immuno-Cell Therapy and its Future Prospect …
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Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV infection is a great public health problem, with an estimated 200 million chronically infected patients worldwide. No vaccines are currently available for HCV, and only a subset of HCV patients responds to interferon-α (IFN-α) and Ribavirin treaiment. Substantial evidence has emerged recently to support the role of the host immune response in the outcome and pathogenesis of HCV infection. Our aims of this article are to present the immune-based novel therapeutic options for HCV infection and the evidence supporting their use in patients with chronic hepatitis C. There is a growing consensus that acute control of HCV infection is associated with a vigorous intrahepatic antiviral CD4+ and CD8+ T cell response. IFN-γ was detectable in the livers of the chimpanzees that cleared or controlled the virus, raising the possibility that IFN-γ might perform antiviral effector functions during HCV infection. Based on these observations, therapeutic induction of inkahepatic IFN-γ by adoptive immunotherapy might be able to control chronic HCV infection. Immunebased novel therapies appear to hold great promise in treating chronic HCV infection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fourth Department of Internal medicine, Tokyo Medical University, Nishi-Shinjuku 6-1, Shinjuku-ku, 160-0023, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazuhiro Kakimi

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  1. Kazuhiro Kakimi
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Correspondence to Kazuhiro Kakimi.

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Kakimi, K. Immune-based novel therapies for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Hum Cell 16, 191–197 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-0774.2003.tb00153.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-0774.2003.tb00153.x

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