Chronic hepatitis C infection poses a major
global health predicament and appears to be potent threat to mankind. The
treatment in wide use is
interferon/
ribavirin combination
therapy which is generally effective in about 60-70 per cent of
patients carrying genotype 3 and causes significant
morbidity. The response to
therapy is largely guided by limited number of factors such as
genotype of
virus, rapid virological response,
ethnicity, pre-
therapy viral load, etc. While involvement of host genetic factors has been a major focus of
research in playing an important
role in the outcome of
disease, the
role of
immune system cannot be marginalized. Poor cellular trafficking and suboptimal
T cell responses in
liver, the hall marks of
chronic hepatitis C virus infection, might be attributed to defective
antigen presentation. Various
immunological factors, both innate and adaptive,
play role in the pathogenesis of the
disease and become dysfunctional in active
disease. Recent
reports suggest the major impact of functional and numerical status of
dendritic cells in deciding the fate of
antiviral therapy. In this
review we take a look at the involvement of
dendritic cells in playing an important
role in the response to
therapy.