[Recent progress and prospective view of chronic hepatitis C research]

Hepatitis C is a major public health problem because of the high incidence of its related hepatocellular carcinoma. With the progress in molecular biology, the mechanisms of persistent infection, chronic inflammation, and hepatocarcinogenesis have been described in terms of virus, host, and virus-cell interactions. On the other hand, clinically, some recent studies using a large number of subjects with long-term observation after interferon therapy showed that improving hepatic inflammation might be associated with regression or retardation of fibrosis. However, current therapy for hepatitis C, although effective in some patients, is problematic even though the efficacy of combination therapy, interferon plus ribavirin, or PEG-interferon has been reported. Here we review the progress and discuss the prospective view of hepatitis C virus research from a point of view of both basic and clinical aspects.