Gene Expression and Hepatitis C Virus Infection

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Gut. 2008 Dec 11. [Epub ahead of print]

Gene Expression and Hepatitis C Virus Infection.

Asselah T, Biechie I, Sabbagh A, Bedossa P, Moreau R, Valla D, Vidaud M,

Marcellin P.

Hôpital Beaujon, France.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease with about 170

million people infected worldwide. Up to 70% of patients will have persistent

infection after inoculation, making this disease a significant cause of

morbidity and mortality. The severity of disease varies widely from asymptomatic

chronic infection to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Since the discovery

of HCV in 1989, the treatment of hepatitis C has considerably improved.

Recently, combination of pegylated interferons with ribavirin gives a response

rate of about 55%. Treatment is indicated in patients with moderate or severe

necroinflammation or fibrosis. The tolerability of combination therapy is

relatively poor with a frequent flu-like syndrome and an impaired quality of

life. In addition to viral and environmental behavioural factors, host genetic

diversity is believed to contribute to the spectrum of clinical outcomes in HCV

infection. The sequencing of the human genome, together with the development of

high-throughput technologies that measure the function of the genome, have

afforded unique opportunities to develop profiles that can distinguish, identify

and classify discrete subsets of disease, predict the disease outcome or predict

the response to therapy. This paper reviews the published literature on gene

expression associated with the HCV infection (HCV infection, fibrosis

progression), and also according to response to therapy.

PMID: 19074178 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]