ABSTRACT
Chronic hepatitis C is a major health problem worldwide, now an increase by 5 of the mortality by primary liver cancer in comparison to the mortality observed 20 years ago. An exponential increase in mortality is forthcoming in the next 20 years if patients are not screened and treated because of the fatal risk due to cirrhosis complications: liver cancer, digestive hemorrhage and hepatic insufficiency, then the number of liver related deaths will soon double and the need for liver transplantation may increase to five times that seen today. Only interferon alpha has a proven efficacy in the treatment of acute and chronic hepatitis C with advantage of long duration regimen in comparison to short treatment. To this aim, we used a reverse transcriptase PCR to quantitate induced mononuclear nitric oxide synthase after INF alpha for possible relationship to antihepatitis C virus and in relation to response to interferon alpha therapy. We studied 40 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated by INF, and 20 healthy controls, nitric oxide synthase mRNA was reverse transcribed to cDNA, which then amplified by PCR. Quantitation is done by Gel Documentation system and by real time PCR [5700]. Nitric oxide synthase mRNA were significantly increased in blood cells from patients with chronic hepatitis C patients after interferon therapy compared to controls and was higher in the best responder to interferon and lower in non responder. The INF alpha treatment of patients with hepatitis C was associated with significant decrease in the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase, Since NO has reported to have antiviral activity for a variety of viruses, So NO production may be related to the antiviral action of INF alpha in hepatitis C patients. Possible relationship of induced NOS2 after interferon therapy to the anti hepatitis C effect.