Treatment
The primary objective of HCV therapy is permanent eradication of the virus. The secondary potential benefit of eradication is a reduction in the risk of liver failure and liver cancer. Currently, peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin is the only FDA approved treatment for HIV–HCV co-infected patients. Interferons bind to specific cell surface receptors of virus-infected cells, which induces a complex cascade of protein-protein interactions and a rapid activation of gene transcription. The antiviral effects of interferons are mediated through inhibition of viral penetration or uncoating, inhibiting viral replication or translation of viral proteins, and/or viral assembly and release. The difference between peginterferon and interferon is the addition of a polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer. The addition of PEG decreases plasma clearance considerably, protects the molecule from proteolytic degradation and reduces its immunogenicity. Peak concentrations are approximately 1.5-2 fold higher than trough concentrations and the half-life is 80 hours (compared to 5.1 hours for interferon alpha-2a). Ribavirin is a synthetic nucleoside analogue, but its mechanism of action is not clearly established. Ribavirin inhibits the replication of a wide range of RNA and DNA viruses. Pharmacokinetics are similar in patients with HIV co-infection compared with HCV mono-infection.
Read more about this topic: Hepatitis C And HIV Co-infection
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,—the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)