Restoration of HCV-specific CD8+ T cell function by interferon-free therapy

B Martin, N Hennecke, V Lohmann, A Kayser… - Journal of …, 2014 - Elsevier
Background & Aims Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is characterised by a failure of
virus-specific CD8+ T cells that is mainly caused by viral escape and T cell exhaustion.
Constant antigen stimulation has been suggested to contribute to HCV-specific CD8+ T cell
exhaustion. However, IFN-based therapies failed to recover HCV-specific CD8+ T cell
function suggesting that the damage to CD8+ T cells may be permanent even after antigen
removal. It was therefore the objective of this study to analyse the impact of inhibition of …