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©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2016; 22(4): 1411-1420
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1411
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1411
Alcoholic liver disease and hepatitis C virus infection
Ignacio Novo-Veleiro, Lucía Alvela-Suárez, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Ignacio Novo-Veleiro, Antonio-Javier Chamorro, Francisco-Javier Laso, Miguel Marcos, Spanish Working Group on Alcohol and Alcoholism, Spanish Society of Internal Medicine, 28016 Madrid, Spain
Antonio-Javier Chamorro, Francisco-Javier Laso, Miguel Marcos, Alcoholism Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Salamanca, Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca-IBSAL, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Rogelio González-Sarmiento, Miguel Marcos, Molecular Medicine Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca-IBSAL, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Author contributions: Novo-Veleiro I, Alvela-Suárez L and Chamorro AJ carried out the literature research and drafted the manuscript; Novo-Veleiro I, Laso FJ, González-Sarmiento R and Marcos M contributed to manuscript conception and design; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript; Laso FJ and Marcos M contributed equally as senior authors of this manuscript.
Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Union FEDER funds, Una manera de hacer Europa (in part, grant No. PI10/01692 and No. I3SNS-INT12/049 to Marcos M); and the Red de Trastornos Adictivos-RTA (grant No. RD12/0028/0008 to Laso FJ).
Conflict-of-interest statement: Marcos M has received advisory board honoraria from Lundbeck.
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: Miguel Marcos, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Alcoholism Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Salamanca, Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca-IBSAL, Pº San Vicente, 58-156, 37007 Salamanca, Spain. mmarcos@usal.es
Telephone: +34-923-291100-437 Fax: +34-923-294739
Received: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 6, 2015
First decision: August 31, 2015
Revised: October 1, 2015
Accepted: November 30, 2015
Article in press: December 1, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Peer-review started: May 6, 2015
First decision: August 31, 2015
Revised: October 1, 2015
Accepted: November 30, 2015
Article in press: December 1, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: Alcohol favors hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication and diminishes immune response against it, increasing the risk of advanced liver disease. HCV infection prevalence among alcoholics, initially thought to be much higher (up to 50%) than in the general population, has been reported to be lower in recent studies. Intravenous drug use and advanced alcoholic liver disease may confound the prevalence of HCV infection among alcoholics. Before starting HCV infection treatment, patients should be screened for alcohol use disorder and abstinence should be achieved. Baclofen may be the drug of choice for patients with alcohol dependence and advanced liver disease.