Year: 2015
Type: review
Abstract: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 200 million people globally, with increasing incidence, especially in developing countries. HCV infection frequently progresses to chronic liver disease, creating a heavy economic burden on resource-poor countries and lowering patient quality of life. Effective HCV diagnosis, treatment selection, and treatment monitoring are important in stopping disease progression. Serological assays, which detect anti-HCV antibodies in the patient after seroconversion, are used for initial HCV diagnosis. Qualitative and quantitative molecular assays are used to confirm initial diagnosis, determine viral load, and genotype the dominant strain. Viral load and genotype information are used to guide appropriate treatment. Various other biomarker assays are performed to assess liver function and enable disease staging. Most of these diagnostic methods are mature and routinely used in high-resource countries with well-developed laboratory infrastructure. Few technologies, however, are available that address the needs of low-resource areas with high HCV prevalence, such as Africa and Southeast Asia.
Source: SLAS TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Ronita Mukherjee, Andrew Burns, Diane Rodden, Frances Chang, Manita Chaum, Nancy Garcia, Nikitha Bollipalli, Angelika Niemz
Institution: Keck Graduate Institute
Language: English
Topic: Hepatitis C virus research
Subfield: Hepatology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,070
OpenAlex ID: W2009700984