Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor reduces hepatitis C virus replication in mononuclear cells from chronic hepatitis C patients

Hepatitis C virus infects mononuclear leukocytes of patients with chronic hepatitis C, Treatment with rhG-CSF led to a dose-related reduction in the genomic and antigenomic hepatitis C viral strands in cultures of mitogen-stimulated, naturally-infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients,vith chronic hepatitis C, Hepatitis C virus genomic strand of subtype Ib was suppressed in 5 of 11 cases, and concurrently with suppression of the viral antigenomic strand in two of them, The treatment also resulted in a significantly increased release of interleukin 6, but not of other cytokines. However, the biological response of hepatitis C virus-infected mononuclear cells to treatment with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was unrelated to any particular pattern of cytokine production (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited