H epatitis C virus (HCV) is responsible for the vast majority of cases of transfusion-associated and community-acquired non-A, non-B hepatitis 1,2 and infects an estimated 170 million people worldwide. 3 The seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody in the United States has been estimated at 1.8%, which corresponds to approximately 4 million people. 4 HCV is the leading cause of chronic viral hepatitis in the United States, 5 and HCV-infected individuals are the major recipients of liver transplantation. HCV, first molecularly cloned in 1989, 1 is a positive-strand RNA virus of the flavivirus family with a genome size of ϳ10 kb, which encodes a number of structural (core, E1, E2, and p7) and nonstructural (NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A and NS5B) proteins. 6 HCV has at least 6 distinct but related genotypes with more than 50 subtypes, and genotype 1 is the most common in the United States, Europe, and most parts of Asia. HCV typically escapes clearance by the host's immune system and leads to the establishment of a persistent infection in approximately 70% of infected individuals. 7 The consequences of a subset of patients with chronic HCV infection are cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. 8,9 Treatment of HCV with interferon alfa (IFN-␣) and ribavirin is associated with a sustained response rate of less than 50%. 7,10,11 These limited therapeutic efficacies and the absence of an effective HCV vaccine underscore the importance of research on factors that enhance HCV infection and compromise IFN-␣-based therapy.Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug in the United States. Alcohol abuse significantly affects morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. 12 Alcohol consumption accelerates liver damage, diminishes therapeutic response to IFN-␣, and increases the rate of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with chronic HCV