Modeling HCV cure after an ultra-short duration of therapy with direct acting agents

摘要

Background: Cases of sustained-virological response (SVR or cure) after an ultra-short duration (<= 27 days) of direct-acting antiviral (DAA)-based therapy, despite HCV. being detected at end of treatment (EDT), have been reported. Established HCV mathematical models that predict the treatment duration required to achieve cure do not take into account the possibility that the infectivity of virus produced during treatment might be reduced. The aim of this study was to develop a new mathematical model that considers the fundamental and critical concept that HCV RNA in serum represents both infectious virus (V-i) and non-infectious virus (V-ni) in order to explain the observation of cure with ultrashort DAA therapy.