The presence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies is associated with a negative response to combination therapy with interferon and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

Abstract Background Non-organ-specific autoantibodies are found in a considerable number of anti-HCV positive patients. Previous studies investigated the clinical relevance of these antibodies in patients treated with interferon monotherapy, but not combination therapies. Methods Anti-nuclear, anti-smooth muscle, anti-mitochondrial, anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmatic and anti-liver/kidney microsomal antibodies were determined in 78 consecutive anti-HCV positive patients by indirect immunofluorescence. The presence of these antibodies was related to demographic variables and to the outcome of antiviral combination therapy with interferon-α and ribavirin in 65 patients. Results In our study, positivity for autoantibodies was associated with higher alanine aminotransferase levels and higher mean values for HCV-RNA (p Conclusions The absence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies might indicate a significantly higher chance for viral clearance in response to combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection. Therefore, despite of an overall higher treatment response, the addition of the immunomodulatory drug ribavirin could accentuate immunological differences that affect treatment outcome and might have been less obvious in earlier studies analysing interferon monotherapy.

Keywords

• Antiviral therapy
• chronic hepatitis C
• interferon-α
• non-organ-specific autoantibodies
• ribavirin