Established and emerging therapies for the treatment of viral hepatitis

Daniel Forton, Peter Karayiannis

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Patients who are chronically infected with either hepatitis B or C viruses run the risk of developing cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in later life. Antiviral treatment offers the only means of interrupting this progression. To date, recombinant interferon alpha and the nucleos(t)ide analogues lamivudine and adefovir dipivoxil are the only licensed drugs for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, whilst recombinant or pegylated interferons in combination with ribavirin are the ones used for chronic hepatitis C virus infections. The efficacy of these treatments, reasons for treatment failure, drug resistance and future options are discussed in the present review.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)160-173
Number of pages14
JournalDigestive Diseases
Volume24
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2006

Keywords

  • Adefovir dipivoxil
  • Antivirals
  • Hepatitis B virus
  • Hepatitis C virus
  • Interferon
  • Lamivudine
  • Nucleos(t)ide analogues
  • Pegylated interferon
  • Resistance
  • Ribavirin
  • Treatment

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