responsibility of the meds

[slamprecht]

Can anyone explain exactly the role of what each drug does: the shot(interferon),ribavirin and victrelis?
I start treatment Friday and I'm a little nervous. I tried treatment 2 years ago,but only made it to week 3 due to bad side effects. This is my second go around.

[rambleon40]

As I recall, if you read the materials closely, they are not quite sure what interefron does or how it works.

Be careful.

[Mari5116]

I'm free associating here and hope I'm not too much off topic with this dumb question,  but...I happened to notice on the bottle of digestive enzymes that I had been taking that they inculde protease enzymes.  Is that the same thing?

[lynda607]

Protease inhibitors: Hepatitis C viruses use an essential enzyme called protease (pro-tee-aze) during their replication process. Certain drugs can interfere with this enzyme which stops the virus' ability to copy itself. Drugs of this type that have reached the market for treating chronic hepatitis C are Victrelis and Incivek.

Polymerase inhibitors:  Each time hepatitis C viruses replicate, they use an enzyme called polymerase to copy their RNA (genetic code). Polymerase inhibitors are drugs that interfere with polymerase. Two types of polymerase inhibitors target the polymerase in different ways: nucleoside analog polymerase inhibitors nonnucleoside analog polymerase inhibitors. None are available outside of clinical trials at this time.

[flcyclist]

I fortunately did not have a mouthful of coffee while reading that comment.  Bravo :)

[FlGuy]

The purpose of each is simple: Interfereon gives you the flu, victrelis gives you a rash and the riba gives you everything else.

[Mari5116]

What's the difference between protease inhibitor and polymerase inhibitor?

[cheesenrice]

its all very complex - but simply stated

IFN - has been shown to possess direct antiviral, antiproliferative, and immunomodulatory activities.

RIBA - has similar properties and also causes errors in viral replication

used separately neither of these drugs are approved as monotherapy - they seem to benefit each other and together are approved as combo therapy

VICTRELIS and INCIVEK - these are protease inhibitors - they directly attack ( inhibit ) the replication ability of the virus

good luck this go round - maybe treatment time can be shorter for you - side effects will still be an issue - maybe not so bad as to discontinue treating - hang in there and best wishes