Correlates of spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus among people with hemophilia

Abstract

People with hemophilia were formerly at very high risk of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Hepatitis C Virus Reinfection and Spontaneous Clearance of Reinfection—the InC3Study

“…Potential interactions between study site-categorized as the Baltimore Before and After Acute Study of Hepatitis (BBAASH; the study contributing largest number of reinfection events) versus other sites-and hypothesized predictors were evaluated. Hypothesized predictors were determined a priori on the basis of established predictors of primary clearance, including age [21], sex [1,15,22,23], IFNL4 genotype (SNP rs12979860; CC vs CT/TT) [24][25][26], the combined effect of sex and IFNL4 genotype (female rs12979860 CC vs others) [15,23], HCV genotype during reinfection (genotype 1 vs non-genotype 1) [15,27], and reinfection with the same versus a different HCV genotype from that in the primary infection. It was hypothesized that participants reinfected with the same HCV genotype would have a greater propensity toward reclearance [28,29].…”

Specific interaction of hepatitis C virus glycoproteins with mannan binding lectin inhibits virus entry

“…Approximately 1.4 million deaths in 2001 were caused by chronic liver disease, of which 280,000 were attributed to HCV infection (Kim, 2002). It is estimated that some 20% of infected patients are able to spontaneously clear the virus (Zhang et al, 2006). A further 50%-60% of patients have a sustained response following antiviral treatment.…”

Hemophilic Siblings With Chronic Hepatitis C: Familial Aggregation of Spontaneous and Treatment-Related Viral Clearance

“…Indeed, a recent study that evaluated non-genetic factors in a cohort of hemophilic subjects has suggested that coinfection with hepatitis B, recent year at infection, and younger age at infection were associated with spontaneous viral clearance (15). In that study, no attempt was made to evaluate potential genetic factors.…”

“…Date of infection-The date of infection was estimated for all subjects based on their hemophilia type and severity and factor replacement histories, as has been previously described (15). For the current study, the date of infection was imputed as the midpoint between the exposure interval with the first use of factor concentrate defining the upper limit (MATLAB, MathWorks, Natick, MA).…”

“…Epidemiologic studies have suggested that the likelihood of spontaneous viral clearance is associated with age at infection, gender, race, and severe acute icteric illness (12)(13)(14)(15). Alcohol consumption greater than 50 grams per day, older age at acquisition, male gender, and co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were independent risk factors associated with more rapid progression of fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C (13,16).…”