Modeling how reversal of immune exhaustion elicits cure of chronic hepatitis C after the end of treatment with direct-acting antiviral agents.

ABSTRACT: A fraction of chronic hepatitis C patients treated with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) achieved sustained virological responses (SVR), or cure, despite having detectable viremia at the end of treatment (EOT). This observation, termed EOT⁺ /SVR, remains puzzling and precludes rational optimization of treatment durations. One hypothesis to explain EOT⁺ /SVR, the immunologic hypothesis, argues that the viral decline induced by DAAs during treatment reverses the exhaustion of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), which then clear the infection after treatment. Whether the hypothesis is consistent with data of viral load changes in patients who experienced EOT⁺ /SVR is unknown. Here, we constructed a mathematical model of viral kinetics incorporating the immunologic

SUBMITTER: Baral S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6220890 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature