Vitamin D and chronic hepatitis C: effects on success rate and prevention of side effects associated with pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin
Int J Clin Exp Med. 2015; 8(7): 10284–10303.. Published online 2015 Jul 15.
Bassem Refaat,1 Adel Galal El-Shemi,1,2 Ahmed Ashshi,1 and Esam Azhar 3,4
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Al Abdeyah, Makkah, PO Box 7607, KSA
2Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Egypt
3Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, KSA
4Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Vitamin D prevents Hepatitis-C and helps treat it (many studies)
- 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 suppresses hepatitis C virus production – Oct 2012
- Search VitaminDWiki for CYTOKINES 889 as of May 2016
- Anti-inflamatory cytokines increased when vitamin D levels were raised above 30 ng – RCT Feb 2015
- Pro-inflammatory cytokines cause the 74 percent drop in vitamin D after knee arthroplasty – Feb 2014
- Search VitaminDWiki for INTERFERON 380 as of May 2016
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Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is one of the most common causes of liver diseases worldwide, affecting 3% of the world population and 3 to 4 million people acquire new infection annually. Despite the recent introduction of novel antiviral drugs for the treatment of CHC, these drugs are expensive and the access to them is not an option for many patients. Hence, the traditional therapy by pegylated interferon-α (Peg-IFN-α) and ribavirin may still have a role in the clinical management of CHC especially in developing countries. However, this standard therapy is associated with several severe extra-hepatic side effects and the most common adverse events are hematological abnormalities and thyroid disorders and they could result in dose reduction and/or termination of therapy. Vitamin D has been shown to be a key regulatory element of the immune system, and its serum concentrations correlate with the severity of liver damage and the development of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis. Furthermore, supplementation with vitamin D with Peg-IFN-α based therapy for the treatment of CHC could be beneficial in increase the response rate to Peg-INF-α based therapy. Vitamin D has also been shown to regulate the thyroid functions and the process of erythropoiesis. This review appraises the data to date researching the role of vitamin D during the treatment of CHC and the potential role of vitamin D in preventing/treating Peg-IFN-α induced thyroiditis and anemia during the course of treatment.