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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 28, 2015; 21(12): 3480-3491
Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i12.3480
Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i12.3480
Hepatitis C virus-specific cytotoxic T cell response restoration after treatment-induced hepatitis C virus control
Juan-Ramón Larrubia, Elia Moreno-Cubero, Joaquín Miquel, Eduardo Sanz-de-Villalobos, Translational Hepatology Unit, Guadalajara University Hospital, University of Alcalá, 19002 Guadalajara, Spain
Juan-Ramón Larrubia, Eduardo Sanz-de-Villalobos, Department of Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain
Elia Moreno-Cubero, Department of Biology of Systems, University of Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain
Author contributions: Larrubia JR and Moreno-Cubero E contributed equally towards the conception and design of the review; Larrubia JR, Moreno-Cubero E, Miquel J, Sanz-de-Villalobos E and Larrubia JR revised the manuscript.
Supported by “Instituto de Salud Carlos III”, Spain and “European Regional Development Fund, a way of making Europe”, E.U. (PI12/00130) and, Moreno-Cubero E was funded by a research award from “Asociación de Hepatología Translacional” (AHT Research Award 2014), Spain.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Juan-Ramón Larrubia, MD, MSc, PhD, Translational Hepatology Unit, Guadalajara University Hospital, University of Alcalá, E-19002 Guadalajara, Spain. juan.larrubia@uah.es
Telephone: +34-949-909200 Fax: +34-949-909256
Received: November 19, 2014
Peer-review started: November 19, 2014
First decision: December 4, 2014
Revised: December 10, 2014
Accepted: February 5, 2015
Article in press: February 5, 2015
Published online: March 28, 2015
Processing time: 131 Days and 11.9 Hours
Peer-review started: November 19, 2014
First decision: December 4, 2014
Revised: December 10, 2014
Accepted: February 5, 2015
Article in press: February 5, 2015
Published online: March 28, 2015
Processing time: 131 Days and 11.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response plays an essential role in controlling acute HCV infection but its implication in treatment-induced viral control is controversial. During interferon/ribavirin treatment, HCV traces persist after sustained viral response (SVR) and this correlates with an activated HCV-specific CTL response, suggesting the necessity of this response to obtain an indefinite viral control. Current data propose that viral suppression during interferon/ribavirin treatment and during direct-acting anti-viral regimes could affect HCV-specific CTL restoration. Moreover, the features of this CTL response during treatment could have a predictive value on SVR outcome.