Review Article

Virological and Clinical Response to Interferon-Free Regimens in Patients with HCV-Related Mixed Cryoglobulinemia: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Pilot Study

Author(s): Laura Gragnani, Alessia Piluso, Teresa Urraro, Alessio Fabbrizzi, Elisa Fognani, Luisa Petraccia, Alessandro Genovesi, Lidia Giubilei, Jessica Ranieri, Cristina Stasi, Monica Monti and Anna Linda Zignego*

Volume 18, Issue 7, 2017

Page: [772 - 785] Pages: 14

DOI: 10.2174/1389450117666160208145432

Price: $65

Abstract

Mixed Cryoglobulinemia (MC) is the most frequent extrahepatic manifestation of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. MC is an autoimmune /B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by circulating immune-complexes, named cryoglobulins. MC patients exhibit symptoms due to a systemic vasculitis of small/medium size vessels (mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome, MCS) in a percentage going from 5 to 30%. The first-line therapeutic option in MCS patients is the etiologic treatment and, in the past fifteen years, antiviral therapy with Pegylated-Interferon (Peg-IFN) plus Ribavirin (RBV) represented the standard of care. Lately, the arrival of direct acting antivirals (DAAs) significantly modified the cure of HCV infection, consenting the use of IFN-free regimens. Here we report a review of the literature about the role of antiviral treatment, following its evolution, in treating HCVrelated MC. Furthermore, we report the results, after 8 weeks of treatment, of a preliminary pilot prospective study, counting 17 patients with HCV-related MC with or without MCS, treated with new generation DAAs in IFN-free regimens. After 8 weeks of DAA administration, all the subjects were HCV RNA negative. Moreover, in 6/17 (35%) patients cryoglobulins disappeared and, on the whole, in all patients a decrease of the cryocrit values was observed (p<0.05). Furthermore, three MCS-HCV patients (30%) resulted to be complete clinical responders and 5 subjects (50%) partial clinical responders. Therefore, IFN-free anti-HCV treatment appears to be safe and effective in MC patients from virological and clinical points of view, thus supporting the importance of HCV eradication in leading MC remission.

Keywords: Antiviral treatment, direct-acting antiviral (DAA), efficacy, HCV, interferon-free (IFN-free), mixed cryoglobulinemia, safety.

Graphical Abstract

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