C 型肝炎病毒(HCV)為輸血性肝炎的主要致病原之ㄧ，造成肝癌、肝硬化等嚴重致死疾病之重要因素，對人類健康影響甚巨。對於慢性C 型肝炎病毒感染，目前最新的治療方法為利用干擾素及Ribavirin的合併療法，在臨床實驗評估報告中，此方法對總體治療率有很大的助益。本研究計畫即旨在收集臨床病例，希望藉由結合臨床數據的分析及實驗室的基礎研究，來探討多重因素與此合併療法長期療效之間的關係。此年度計畫已完成30 個病人的NS5A2209-2248 序列分析，經由臨床療效分析結果顯示病人的性別及年齡與長期療效無關，與NS5A 2209-2248 部分序列是否突變亦無關連性。30 個分析病例中，27 個病例在此區域中無胺基酸突變發生，其中14 個具完全療效，6 人無療效，7 人有復發現象產生。具突變的3 例中，分別為2218HisRArg(無療效), 2219HisRArg(完全療效),2227 IleRPhe(復發)。這些突變種的功能性分析將是下一步之研究重點。 Recently, ribavirin has been evaluated as a therapy of chronic hepatitis C alone and in combination with alpha interferon. Most of the results of interferon-ribavirin combination antiviral therapy were promising. For a more precise estimation of the efficacy and tolerability of interferon-ribavirin combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C, we hope to clarify the relationship between the treatment efficiency and multifactors through this study. Several factors include age and sex of patients, were found to have no impact on the treatment efficiency, including sex and age of patient. The mutation in the NS5A2209-2248 were also irrelevant to the treatment efficiency since in the total of 30 patients analyzed, 27 were without amino acid change in this region (14 responders, 6 non-responders, and 7 relapsers), and 1 with 2218HisRArg (non-responder), 1 with 2219HisRArg (responder), and another one with 2227 IleRPhe (relapser). The functional analysis of these mutants will be our next objective.
