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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Nov 8, 2015; 7(25): 2590-2596
Published online Nov 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i25.2590
Ribavirin contributes to eradicate hepatitis C virus through polarization of T helper 1/2 cell balance into T helper 1 dominance
Katsuhisa Nakatsuka, Masanori Atsukawa, Masumi Shimizu, Hidemi Takahashi, Chiaki Kawamoto
Katsuhisa Nakatsuka, Masanori Atsukawa, Chiaki Kawamoto, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
Masumi Shimizu, Hidemi Takahashi, Microbiology and Immunology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest for this review article.
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: Katsuhisa Nakatsuka, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5, Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan. kaynet@nms.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-44-7335181 Fax: +81-44-3968087
Received: April 27, 2015
Peer-review started: May 1, 2015
First decision: August 4, 2015
Revised: August 22, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: November 8, 2015
Processing time: 195 Days and 23.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Ribavirin has the potential to regulate the T-helper (Th) 1/2 cell balance into Th1 dominance by modulating the co-stimulatory signaling between antigen-presenting cells and naïve Th cells as well as the inhibitory activity of T-regulatory cells. These are considered useful in treating hepatitis C virus infection, especially to inhibit hepatocellular carcinoma development.