Journal article
Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance
D Ge, J Fellay, AJ Thompson, JS Simon, KV Shianna, TJ Urban, EL Heinzen, P Qiu, AH Bertelsen, AJ Muir, M Sulkowski, JG McHutchison, DB Goldstein
Nature | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2009
DOI: 10.1038/nature08309
Abstract
Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects 170 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cirrhosis in North America. Although the recommended treatment for chronic infection involves a 48-week course of peginterferon-α-2b (PegIFN-α-2b) or-α-2a (PegIFN-α-2a) combined with ribavirin (RBV), it is well known that many patients will not be cured by treatment, and that patients of European ancestry have a significantly higher probability of being cured than patients of African ancestry. In addition to limited efficacy, treatment is often poorly tolerated because of side effects that prevent some patients from completing therapy. For these reasons, identification of the deter..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the IDEAL principal investigators, the study coordinators, nurses and patients involved in the study. We also recognize E. Gustafson, P. Savino, D. Devlin, S. Noviello, M. Geffner, J. Albrecht and A. C. Need for their contributions to the study. This study was funded by Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, New Jersey. A. J. T. received funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Gastroenterological Society of Australia.