Management of post transplant hepatitis C in the direct antiviral agents era

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the main indications for liver transplantation. Viral recurrence occurs in all patients with detectable serum HCV RNA at the time of transplantation leading to cirrhosis in 20-30% of patients within 5 years. Viral eradication using antiviral therapy has been shown to improve patient and graft survival. Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) antiviral therapy achieved SVR in around 30% of transplant recipients. In the non-transplant setting, first generation NS3/4 protease inhibitors, boceprevir or telaprevir associated with PEG-IFN and RBV, has improved the SVR rates to 75% in genotype 1 infected patients. However, tolerability and drug-drug interactions with calcineurin inhibitors are both limiting factors of their use in transplant recipients. In the non-transplant patients, using new direct-acting antiviral therapy has dramatically improved the efficacy of antiviral C therapy over recent years leading to SVR rates over 90% in phase II and III clinical trials, without PEG-IFN and/or RBV. Preliminary results in transplant patients showed better efficacy, better tolerability and less drug-drug interactions.