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World J Hepatol. Oct 27, 2018; 10(10): 670-684
Published online Oct 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i10.670
Era of direct acting anti-viral agents for the treatment of hepatitis C
Monjur Ahmed
Monjur Ahmed, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States
Author contributions: Ahmed M solely contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
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: Monjur Ahmed, FACG, FACP, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, 132 South 10th Street, Suite 468, Main Building, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States. monjur.ahmed@jefferson.edu
Telephone: +1-215-9521493 Fax: +1-215-7551850
Received: April 11, 2018
Peer-review started: April 11, 2018
First decision: May 2, 2018
Revised: May 15, 2018
Accepted: May 23, 2018
Article in press: May 24, 2018
Published online: October 27, 2018
Abstract

Hepatitis C infection is universal and the most common indication of liver transplantation in the United States. The period of less effective interferon therapy with intolerable side effects has gone. Now we have stepped into the era of direct acting anti-viral agents (DAAs) against hepatitis C virus. Treatment of hepatitis C is now extremely effective, tolerable and requires a short duration of intake of oral agents. Less monitoring is required with the current therapy and drug-drug interactions are less than the previous regimen. The current treatment options of chronic hepatitis C with various DAAs are discussed in this article.

Keywords: Direct acting anti-viral agents, Hepatitis C virus infection, Post-liver transplant, Hepatitis C virus/human immunodeficiency virus co-infection

Core tip: Treatment of hepatitis C has now become much easy and simple with the advent of direct acting anti-viral agents (DAAs) against hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although the DAAs are highly effective in eradicating HCV infection, they have different mechanisms of action, side effects, resistance factors and drug-drug interactions. The treatment also varies in special situations like HCV/ human immunodeficiency virus co-infection and post-liver transplant patients. Physicians treating patients with HCV infection should have a clear knowledge about the DAAs as well as the current guidelines.