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Evaluation of IFNalpha bioavailability by MxA mRNA in HCV patients
1Centro Sclerosi Multipla and Laboratorio di Neurobiologia Clinica, Divisione Universitaria di Neurologia, Azienda Ospedaliera S. Luigi, Università di Torino, Regione Gonzole 10, 10043 Orbassano, Italy. NSGLB@TIN.IT
Abstract:
Previously, we have reported the development of a new quantitative-competitive polymerase chain reaction (qc-PCR) method to evaluate interferon-beta (IFNbeta) bioavailability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, by measuring mRNA of mixovirus resistance protein A (MxA). Here we show that our assay is also able to assess IFNalpha bioavailability in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients treated with different IFNalpha regimens. Indeed, our method was able to detect a slight constitutive expression of MxA mRNA in untreated HCV patients (median=70 fgMxA/pgGAPDH) and a significant induction 12 h after the first IFNalpha administration (median=750 fgMxA/pgGAPDH).