Cocktail of Statin and Interferon Treats Hepatitis C

Researchers have found that a drug combination comprising interferon and fluvastatin, one of the family of cholesterol-lowering statins, was a more effective treatment for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) than the currently used blend of interferon and ribavirin.

Clinical studies have found that more than half of hepatitis C patients treated with interferon respond, displaying better blood tests and better liver biopsies. While there is some evidence that giving interferon immediately following infection can prevent hepatitis C, most people infected by HCV do not display symptoms until months or years later. The [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration has approved pegylated interferon-alpha, in which polyethylene glycol is added to make the interferon last longer in the body, for treatment of hepatitis C.

The pegylated form is injected once weekly, rather than three times per week for conventional interferon-alpha. Used in combination with the antiviral drug ribavirin, pegylated interferon produces sustained cure rates of 75% or better in people with genotype 2 or 3 hepatitis C and about 50% in people with genotype 1, which is the most common in the United States and Western Europe.

The current study was aimed at finding a means for treating those hepatitis C patients that failed to respond to interferon/ribavirin therapy. Investigators at Okayama University (Japan; www.okayama-u.ac.jp) utilized their OR6 cell culture assay system to evaluate the anti-HCV activities of five 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins): atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin. They reported in the July 2006 issue of Hepatology that fluvastatin had the strongest effect, atorvastatin and simvastatin were moderately effective, lovastatin was weakly effective, and pravastatin had no effect.

The statins were then tested in combination with interferon. The fluvastatin/interferon combination proved to be the most effective, while the combination of pravastatin and interferon was not effective. Although pravastatin exhibited no anti-HCV activity, it continued to function as an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, suggesting that the anti-HCV activities of the other stains were not due to the direct inhibition of HMG-CoA.

These findings led the authors to conclude that, "Statins, especially fluvastatin, could be potentially useful as new anti-HCV reagents in combination with interferon.”



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