Successful and Safe Long-Term Standard Antiviral Therapy in a Patient with “Explosive” Immune Response in Course of HCV-Related Liver Cirrhosis |
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Authors: | Paolo Conca Giovanni Cafaro Amalia De Renzo Antonio Coppola Ernesto Cimino Giovanni Tarantino |
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Affiliation: | 1.Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University Medical School of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy; E-Mails: (P.C.); (G.C.); (A.C.); (E.C.);2.Haematology Unit, Federico II University Medical School of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy; E-Mail: |
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Abstract: | Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been recognized to be both a hepato- and lymphotropic virus. HCV lymphotropism represents an essential detail in the pathogenesis of virus-related autoimmune and lymphoproliferative disorders, ranging from clonal expansion of B-cells with organ and non-organ-specific autoantibody production up to overt non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma along a continuous step-by-step model of B-cell lymphomagenesis, where the intermediated mixed cryoglobulinemia could be considered as a stage of suppressible antigen-driven lymphoproliferation. The HCV long-lasting extrahepatic replicative state generates an abnormal systemic immunological response, including rheumatoid factor (RF) and cryo- and non-cryoprecipitable immune complexes, as well as clinical manifestations, comprising dermatitis, polyarthralgias and arthritis, pulmonary disease, aplastic anemia, glomerulonephritis and vasculitis. The mechanism of these extra-hepatic disorders is thought of as linked to immune complex disease, but their pathogenesis is poorly clarified. Immune-suppressive treatment could induce high-level hepatitis C viremia and impair hepatic disease. We report a female patient, whose chronic HCV-related liver cirrhosis with associated explosive, but oligosymptomatic lymphoproliferative immune response, i.e., RF beyond three thousand times the upper of normal range (unr), type II cryoglobulinemia with cryocrit 40% and monoclonal gammopathy IgM-k, has been successfully and safely treated by long-lasting (sixty-six months) combined antiviral therapy (pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin), at moderate and tapering dose regimen, prolonged for nearly 24 months after the first viral suppression. At the last follow-up (fifty-one months), the patient was showing very-long term antiviral response, progressive decline of secondary immune activation and absence of significant side-effects. Further research is required to fully verify the real impact on therapeutic choice/regimen. |
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Keywords: | hepatitis C infection lymphoproliferative disorders cryoblobulins rheumatoid factor antiviral treatment |
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