Pastore F, Martocchia A, Stefanelli M, Prunas P, Giordano S, Toussan L, Devito A, Falaschi P. Hepatitis C virus infection and thyroid autoimmune disorders: A model of interactions between the host and the environment. World J Hepatol 2016; 8(2): 83-91 [PMID: 26807204 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i2.83]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Francesca Pastore, MD, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, S. Andrea Hospital, Via di Grottarossa 1035/39, 00189 Rome, Italy. francesca.past@virgilio.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
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 Hepatol. Jan 18, 2016; 8(2): 83-91 Published online Jan 18, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i2.83
Hepatitis C virus infection and thyroid autoimmune disorders: A model of interactions between the host and the environment
Francesca Pastore, Antonio Martocchia, Manuela Stefanelli, Pietro Prunas, Stefania Giordano, Lavinia Toussan, Antonio Devito, Paolo Falaschi
Francesca Pastore, Antonio Martocchia, Manuela Stefanelli, Pietro Prunas, Stefania Giordano, Lavinia Toussan, Antonio Devito, Paolo Falaschi, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, S. Andrea Hospital, 00189 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No financial conflicts of interest or other relationships are present in the manuscript.
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: Francesca Pastore, MD, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, S. Andrea Hospital, Via di Grottarossa 1035/39, 00189 Rome, Italy. francesca.past@virgilio.it
Telephone: +39-6-33775467 Fax: +39-6-33775401
Received: April 28, 2015 Peer-review started: May 6, 2015 First decision: October 14, 2015 Revised: October 28, 2015 Accepted: December 3, 2015 Article in press: December 4, 2015 Published online: January 18, 2016
Abstract
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important public health problem and it is associated with hepatic and extrahepatic manifestations. Autoimmune thyroid diseases are common in HCV infected patients and the standard interferon-based treatment is associated with an increase of the immune-mediated thyroid damage. Recent evidence in the literature analyzed critical points of the mechanisms of thyroid damage, focusing on the balance between the two sides of the interaction: The environment (virus infection with potential cross-reaction) and the host (susceptibility genes with consistent immune response). The spectrum of antiviral treatment for chronic HCV infection is rapidly expanding for the development of dual o triple therapy. The availability of interferon-free combined treatment with direct antiviral agents for HCV is very promising, in order to ameliorate the patient compliance and to reduce the development of thyroid autoimmunity.
Core tip: This review examines the relationship between the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the thyroid autoimmunity, on the basis of recent evidence of the literature about the mechanisms of self tolerance and thyroid damage related to HCV. The advances in the HCV infection treatment have been discussed in the paper, with relevant clinical results.
