News Articles

[BeatHepC]

here are two recent news articles:

<a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_16477.html">Hepatitis C a Direct Cause of Diabetes</a>

(from the article): "Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can directly cause insulin resistance, which commonly leads to diabetes, Japanese researchers have found....This research "makes an important contribution to putting the HCV-diabetes association on a mechanistic footing, thus elevating it from a curious association to an important disease process," write Dr. Steven A. Weinman and Dr. L. Maria Belalcazar from University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, in a related editorial."


<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14660270">Etanercept therapy in patients with autoimmunity and hepatitis C</a>

(from the article): "Accumulated data suggest that etanercept may be a therapeutic option in patients with hepatitis C and coexisting autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Additionally, etanercept may actually be of benefit, when used in combination with standard treatments, for hepatitis C."


a link to info about the drug <a href="http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/etanercept_ids.htm">Etanercept/Enbrel</a>

[cheriums]

I looked around a very large support group a lot of years ago noticing that a much, much larger % of us had been diagnosed with diabetes than could be expected in the general population.  When studies started apprearing on the subject, I said to myself, I KNEW IT!

[thanbey]

I have read this article in several places and I am puzzled at the difference between the headline and the content. "Direct cause" seems to be an overstatement, if I am reading this article correctly (not the abstract, the article). Insulin resistance has been known to be an issue for a while and surely it can lead to diabetes. This is where many of the lifestyle choices come into play to avoid the consequences of insulin resistances. Add the high fat diet, and anyone is suceptible to diabetes, so this seems to be a preliminary mouse study that needs more investigation before a direct association is made in humans. I don't know, maybe I am just missing a key piece of this or something. It seems they are linking high fat diet and insulin resistance  more than anything.

And the second article is not very clear, either. Enbrel is an aniti-inflammatory and the folks at Amgen told me a couple of years ago that they had found some histological improvement with Enbrel in those with hepatitis C, independently of interferon therapy. This is very exerimental at this point and I don't know whether Amgen has made a committment to this research yet.

Enbrel has some serious side effects of its own (it is an injectable) and using it in combination with interferon, especially where autoimmune disorders are present, is highly controversial. That may be difficult to get by an Investigational Review Board (IRB) We'll see.

thanbey

[cuteus]

TY for emphasizing that hcv infection is not a liver disease exclusively.  

I printed an article from hepnet on Immunologic and Extrahepatic Manifestations of HCV infection.  It is dated 1998, but it raises valid points.

The more reason to consider eliminating this virus.  Liver disease might progress in decades for most, but what about the other conditions? am I willing to wait and see?  NOT

be well my friend, many happy returns, ;-))