Active clinical trials for "Hepatitis C"

This prospective, multi-center, observational study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) plus Copegus (ribavirin) in participants with previously untreated chronic hepatitis C, genotype 2, 3, 1 or 4, who are undergoing opioid maintenance therapy. Data will be collected from eligible participants receiving Pegasys and Copegus treatment as prescribed by treating physician and treatment-free follow-up period of 24 weeks.

Nearly 175 million people worldwide are infected by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), close to 3% of the global population. Contrary to other chronic infections such as HIV, clearance of HCV is possible. While much is now known about the response to treatment in chronic HCV patients, the fact that acute HCV infection is typically asymptomatic (~80% of patients show no clinical signs) has made it challenging to define the mechanisms involved in spontaneous clearance. Immune protection against HCV is thought to be largely dependent upon the CD8 T cell response. Therefore using the latest T cell detection technology the investigators will develop a panel of tetramers specific for all potential HCV epitopes. To produce the tetramers the investigators will utilize HLA ligand exchange technology which allows the production of very large collections of peptide-HLA multimers for T cell staining. The investigators have already performed a large scale identification of HCVg1 and HCVg4 CD8 T cell epitopes using published viral sequences and algorithm prediction databases. Using this information the investigators are currently in the process of developing collections of peptide-HLA multimers for T cell staining. Therefore the investigators require large lymphocyte pools from HCV+ patients to test both the sensitivity and accuracy of each tetramer on the CD3+CD8+ T cells. The investigators wish to examine cells from patients infected with HCV g1 and HCV g4 to be able to test and compare the frequency of possible conserved epitopes present in both HCVg1 and HCVg4 infections. Once developed this technique will allow us to examine all virus-specific CD8 T cells present in patients with acute or chronic disease, and on smaller quantities of blood. The development of these technologies will also allow us to tailor such future diagnostic tests to local populations where a viral subspecies is prevalent; for example using North-African HLA alleles for HCVg4 epitopes. The work carried out using such assays will provide important immunological correlates of viral clearance that will impact vaccine design for HCV infections. Finally, the identification of protective CD8 T cells specific for HCV may allow new diagnostic tools with predictive powers of disease progression that can be used on any flow cytometer machine.

The primary objective of this study is: To evaluate the real-world safety, specifically the incidence rates of hepatic toxicity, pyrexia, and resistance, of DCV/ASV dual therapy in Japanese patients chronically infected with HCV GT-1.

This study evaluates patients infected with both HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) who are receiving anti-HIV drugs. The purpose of this study is to learn more about HCV infection in patients whose HIV blood level decreases to less than 500 copies/ml.

Each year around 200 blood donors in the UK are found to be infected with blood-borne diseases (HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HTLV), while several others have been identified as having an increased risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Although the notification procedures for these infections vary, their effectiveness and appropriateness have never been evaluated in a systematic study. The proposed research has been designed to assess the responses of blood donors to notification and their satisfaction with how they were informed about the infection. The study will be implemented using standard questionnaire-based measures (French et al, 2004; Marteau & Bekker, 1992). The study will involve approximately 600 blood donors who were informed of an infection or possible infection with blood-borne diseases in 2008 and 2009, and approximately 100 donors notified of possible risk of vCJD infection in 2005. A comparable group of 2005 donors will be included to control for the effects of time. As the majority of donors testing positive donated to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the participants will be identified from the NHSBT database only, and their availability confirmed through their GP or specialist clinician. A standardized questionnaire will be then sent to all those identified as eligible. The study will last 12 months, but direct participant involvement will be limited to the time required to complete the questionnaire, which should take under one hour. To safeguard confidentiality, no identifiable personal data will be used in the analysis. Where demographic or medical information already held by NHSBT is retrieved to minimise response burden, this will be pseudonymised before use. The study is sponsored by the blood services for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The results will be used to inform notification procedures in the future.

The purpose of the study is to validate the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of SAPI to predict significant hepatic fibrosis in HCV patients with PNALT who are scheduled to receive combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin and percutaneous liver biopsies.

This study will determine the effects that HIV and hepatitis C virus have on thinking abilities and whether the viruses affect brain chemistry.

Although injection drug users represent the majority of new and existing cases of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), many lack access to treatment because of concerns about adherence, effectiveness, and reinfection. On the basis of a small but growing body of evidence showing that injection drug users can undergo treatment for HCV infection successfully, the 2002 NIH Consensus Statement on Hepatitis C has recommended that substance users be treated for HCV infection on a case-by-case basis. In this study, all patients will receive pegylated interferon alfa-2b (PegIFN-2b) and ribavirin according to European labeling; one cohort of participants will also be receiving substitution therapy (opioid medicines with long-lasting effects [methadone + buprenorphine] or morphine).

Previous intravenous drug abusers with chronic hepatitis C who are under substitution therapy (buprenorphine, methadone) will be treated with PegIntron and Rebetol according to the approved European labeling. The study will assess the tolerability, safety and efficacy of the treatment with PegIntron plus Rebetol in this study population. The objective of the study is to collect data on the prevalence of the hepatitis C infections in drug-substituted patients. The study will also compare the feasibility of HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) treatment in patients receiving Subutex® vs other drug substitution pharmacotherapies.

We hypothesize that integrating Hepatitis C into methadone and buprenorphine treatment will improve Hepatitis C outcomes as well as drug treatment outcomes in patients who are addicted to opiates. We will test this hypothesis by randomly assigning patients to receive integrated or separated care. The first group will receive Hepatitis C treatment and substance abuse treatment contemporaneously at the South Central Rehabilitation Center (SCRC). They will take both methadone or buprenorphine and Hepatitis C medications under the daily (methadone) or weekly (buprenorphine) observation of a health care provider. The second group will receive substance abuse treatment at SCRC, and go to another facility to receive Hepatitis C treatment services. These participants will take their medications on their own (without observation). We will look at outcomes such as Hepatitis C viral loads, adherence to medications, and drug treatment outcomes such as receipt of buprenorphine and methadone and urine toxicology testing.