Research

Enhanced anti-HCV activity of interferon alpha 17 subtype

Aurelie Dubois¹ , Catherine François¹ , Veronique Descamps¹ , Carole Fournier¹ , Czeslaw Wychowski² , Jean Dubuisson² , Sandrine Castelain¹ and Gilles Duverlie¹

¹  Virology Laboratory-Amiens University Medical Centre, France

²  CNRS-UMR 8161, Lille Institute of Biology, Lille, France

author email corresponding author email

Virology Journal 2009, 6:70doi:10.1186/1743-422X-6-70

Published:	3 June 2009

Abstract

Background

Pegylated interferon alpha 2 (a or b) plus ribavirin is the most effective treatment of chronic hepatitis C but a large proportion of patients do not respond to therapy. So, it is interesting to improve the treatment efficacy. Interferon alpha is a type I interferon composed of 12 different subtypes. Each subtype signals by the Jak-Stat pathway but modulations in the antiviral activity was previously described.

Methods

Using the hepatitis C virus (HCV) culture system, we have tested the anti-HCV activity of each interferon alpha subtypes. We have analyzed the effect of each subtype on the HCV multiplication and the cell-signaling pathway for some subtypes.

Results

There were divergent effects of IFN alpha subtypes against HCV. We have found that IFN alpha 17 was three times more efficient than IFN alpha 2a on HCV. This efficiency was related to a stronger stimulation of the Jak-Stat pathway.

Conclusion

We suggest that IFN α17 should be tested therapeutically with a view to improving treatment efficacy.