Pegylated, Interferon-A Literature Review

In this disease the symptoms worsen over time. Over a prolonged time period memory, judgement, and thinking declines. You can stretch out the time with medication before it gets too terrible.

Until 2011, the main therapy against the infection was Pegylated-interferon (Peg-IFN) and the ribavirin (RBV) treatment (11). Interferon is a type of protein that stimulates the immune system and helps halt the virus from spreading throughout the body. Pegylated-interferon is a combination of three types of interferon, including polyethylene (PEG), which helps the treatment remain in the body for a longer time period. Ribavirin is a medication that helps stop the HCV virus from replicating. It is commonly used in combination with interferon, which is referred to as the “Peg/riba therapy.” This combination therapy is more effective than the interferon itself. However, these medications do not have a one hundred percent cure rate and it was reported

There are a number of individuals who may be suffering from an illness and not even be aware they have an illness. One example of such illness is Hepatitis C (HCV). Hepatitis C is a severe disease of the liver. It is caused by the Hepatitis C virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2015). As a result, Hepatitis C has been termed a silent epidemic (CDC, 2015). This is because a lot of individuals have Hepatitis C and don’t even realize they have the infection (CDC, 2015). As the infection begins to progress over time, it could cause acute issues to the liver (CDC, 2015). Those issues could be things like damage to the liver, the liver could fail to function, cirrhosis, or even cancer of the liver (CDC, 2015). However, screening for Hepatitis C will allow an individual to benefit from treatments that are available, hence eliminating the disease from the body and preventing the liver from undergoing any further damage (CDC, 2015).

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes chronic liver. Over time, infections can lead to liver damage, liver cancer, and even liver failure.

Corticosteroids were used in an acute attack to hold down the inflammatory response, with intravenous methyl-prednisolone being used in moderate for the severe relapses. Interferon-beta have been shown to have a little to no effect in relapsing and also remitting the disease in placebo-controlled trials. So therefore the patients were monitored for up to 7 years with enhanced nuclear magnetic imaging and those that were on higher doses of interferon-beta had a somewhat reduced rate of new lesions. These kinds of treatments happen to be tolerated but a lot questions remain; since it costs a lot to undergo that kind of therapy and it have very little benefit then it means its limited. Immunosuppressive drugs, such as azathioprine and cyclosporin, don’t really help and they, have a poor connection with the blood brain barrier. Trials of immune stimulation haven’t really been impressive and then the interferon-gamma made the disease worse than

Initially, the treatment for hepatitis C is a combination of two drug categories which are interferon and ribavirin (IDSA, 2016). Interferon works by stimulating the immune system to attack the hepatitis C virus cells (IDSA, 2016). Pegylated interferon works more efficient than standard interferon. Pegylated interferon is a long-acting type of interferon that is administered as an injection with

Although this disease effects the entire brain, imaging has revealed that certain areas are more affected than others such as the basal ganglia, specifically the putamen and caudate nucleus, which contribute to movement and behavioral control.² Due to the degeneration of the basal ganglia and the decline in neurons, the ventricles in the brain become enlarged. It is stated that the brain decreases in size by as much as 20%.¹ In addition to the deterioration of the striatum, there are also changes in the cortices of the brain. The natural course of HD has a correlation to the progression of the atrophy associated with the cortices which is the white matter in the brain. The decline in the frontal cortex plays an important role in the progression of this disease. The disease progresses more rapidly with less white matter and more striatal damage.¹ The natural course of this disease is dependent on the specific region within the brain and the neuronal changes. The textbook explains that in the beginning stages of this disease, the neurons associated with the substantia nigra are reduced first. This decline in neurons contributes to the lack of neurotransmitters that are available. Without the appropriate numbers of neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, there is an increase of

Interferon only has about a 19% success rate, but when the drug is paired with Ribavirin has a staggering success rate of 75% within less than a year of treatment. Ribavirin cannot treat hepatitis c without Interferon, Ribavirin alone is a popular drug to treat infant pneumonia. When paired with Interferon, the antiviral drug mimics the building blocks of DNA and RNA. This interferes with the viruses reproduction in the body. This combination stimulates the T cells, strengthening the immune system and creates better defenses against the virus. The genotype and progression of the virus is dependent on how long your treatment regimen will last. The treatment can take anywhere between 2 months to 11 months. Studies show that the median treatment

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Daclatasvir displayed potent inhibitory activity against all HCV genotypes tested (genotypes 1-6) [18, 19]. In replicon assays, the half~maximal effective concentration (EC5O) values of daclatasvir against HCV genotypes 1a, lb, 2a,3a, 4a and 5a were 50, 9, 71-103, 146, 12 and 33 pmol/L, respectively [28]. Daclatasvir displayed additive or syneregistic inhibitory activity in replicn assays when used in combination with peginterferon-a and ribavirin, NS3/4A inhibitors (danoprevir or asunaprevir) or NSSB inhibitors [EMS-791325 (beclabuvir) or NM-107] [28, 30]

The neurocognitive dysfunction can be a complication of chronic hepatitis C (3), and several reports have described the adverse influence of the virus on cognitive function (7), which is characterised by complex attention, executive functions, learning and memory, perceptual motor functions and social cognition (4). Most of the studies suggest that cognitive impairments in HCV infection and their manifestations are completely reversible. However, more recently, some research has been inconclusive to determine the total reversibility in these cases. Few mental impairments may persist even after transplantation, once It might be linked to persistent cumulative deficits in working memory and learning. In addition, irreversible alterations in the brain in CHC patients were revealed by MRI imaging. (8).

Injection drug use has been the principal mode of transmission of HCV since the 1970's. In comparison to other viral infections, HCV is more rapidly acquired after initiation of intravenous drug use. In addition, rates of HCV among young injecting drug-users are four times higher than HIV infection. Studies of injection drug users have demonstrated that the prevalence of HCV infection in them is extremely high, with up to 90% having been exposed (Patrick et al., 2000). In addition, the incidence of new infections is also high, with seroconversion rates of 10-20 percent per year of injecting (Hahn.2001).

Interferon alpha (IFN -a) has been considered the only option available for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) with sustained remission in about 20-25% of cases (Poynard et al., 1998). In recent years, it has been established that the combination of IFN-a with ribavirin (RIBA) may increase the biochemical and virological response rates in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients to about 40%. Currently the combination therapy of IFN-and RIBA is the first line treatment in patients (Bergamini et al., 2001). Interferon is a low molecular weight glycoprotein cytokines produced by host cells in response to viral infections. Interferon bind to specific cell surface receptors and effect viral replication at multiple steps: viral penetration, synthesis

We present a 35 year old man, former intravenous drug users, with chronic HCV infection two years back, who was hospitalized at the Neurology Care Unit, Clinic of Neurology, Clinical Center in Kragujevac, Serbia in March 2015. The main complaints were headache, difficulty speaking, weakness of the left side of the body, adynamia and fever. The weakness of the left side of the body began suddenly in the night before the admission. The patient occasionally had increased body temperature 3 months before admission and was treated with oral antibiotic treatment. A few days before admission to our department had a temperature of about 39 degrees C (about 102 degrees F). A few months previously he was treated for hypochromic anemia.

Based on the research made by the World Health Organization or WHO, every year 3 to 4 million people are infected by hepatitis C virus or HCV and more than 350,000 die every year because of this chronic disease. Fortunately, due to the introduction of direct-acting antivirals, treatment for HCV has been improved dramatically. Some of these medications have troublesome side effects that can interfere with the normal daily activities. Here are simple and practical tips that can help in managing and reducing these side effects: