Adinolfi LE, Rinaldi L, Nevola R. Chronic hepatitis C, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease: What impact of direct-acting antiviral treatments? World J Gastroenterol 2018; 24(41): 4617-4621 [PMID: 30416309 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i41.4617]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Luigi Elio Adinolfi, MD, Full Professor, Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic, and Geriatric Sciences, University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Piazza Miraglia, Naples 80138, Italy. luigielio.adinolfi@unicampania.it
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2018; 24(41): 4617-4621 Published online Nov 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i41.4617
Chronic hepatitis C, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease: What impact of direct-acting antiviral treatments?
Luigi Elio Adinolfi, Luca Rinaldi, Riccardo Nevola
Luigi Elio Adinolfi, Luca Rinaldi, Riccardo Nevola, Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic, and Geriatric Sciences, University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Naples 80138, Italy
Author contributions: Adinolfi LE conceived the editorial; all authors equally contributed to the realization of the editorial.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors state that they do not have any conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Luigi Elio Adinolfi, MD, Full Professor, Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic, and Geriatric Sciences, University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Piazza Miraglia, Naples 80138, Italy. luigielio.adinolfi@unicampania.it
Telephone: +39-81-5665081
Received: August 18, 2018 Peer-review started: August 19, 2018 First decision: October 9, 2018 Revised: October 11, 2018 Accepted: October 21, 2018 Article in press: October 21, 2018 Published online: November 7, 2018
Core Tip
Core tip: Chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular mortality. HCV lives within carotid plaques, promotes pro-atherogenic conditions such as pro-inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, diabetes, steatosis, cryoglobulinemia and endotoxinemia. Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) are highly effective and safe therapeutic regimens. There are a number of studies showing that HCV clearance by DAAs is associated with an improvement in atherosclerosis and a reduced risk of cardiovascular events. In addition, HCV clearance is associated with improvement of metabolic and immunological conditions that promote cardiovascular disease. Further studies will be needed to confirm these promising data.
