Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2018; 24(40): 4554-4564
Published online Oct 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i40.4554
Recovery of natural killer cells is mainly in post-treatment period in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with sofosbuvir plus ledipasvir
Xiao-Xiao Wang, Bi-Fen Luo, Han-Ji Jiang, Xu Cong, Qian Jin, Dan-Li Ma, Lai Wei, Bo Feng
Xiao-Xiao Wang, Bi-Fen Luo, Han-Ji Jiang, Xu Cong, Qian Jin, Dan-Li Ma, Lai Wei, Bo Feng, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Diseases, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
Author contributions: Wang XX, Luo BF, Wei L and Feng B designed the study, performed data analysis, and wrote and edited the manuscript; Luo BF, Jiang HJ, Jin Q and Ma DL enrolled the patients; Wang XX, Jiang HJ, and Cong X performed sample testing; all authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.
Supported by the National S&T Major Projects for Infectious Diseases Control, No. 2017ZX10302201-004-001.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking University People’s Hospital.
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: Bo Feng, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Research Fellow, Peking University Hepatology Institute, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hepatitis C and Immunotherapy for Liver Diseases, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11, Xizhimen South Street, Beijing 100044, China. fengbo@pkuph.edu.cn
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Received: July 27, 2018
Peer-review started: July 27, 2018
First decision: August 27, 2018
Revised: September 2, 2018
Accepted: October 5, 2018
Article in press: October 5, 2018
Published online: October 28, 2018
Processing time: 91 Days and 10.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: In our study, we observed the dynamic changes of natural killer (NK) cell subsets, phenotypes and functional parameters during and after direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) treatment and investigated the effect of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir therapy on innate immunity in genotype 1b hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. We illustrated that NK cells of chronic hepatitis C patients can be affected by DAAs and phenotypes and function of NK cells recovered not at early stage but mainly after the end of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir treatment. These findings may provide an explanation for HCV reinfection or liver carcinogenesis after HCV elimination.