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During the past 6 months, we've witnessed an explosion of information about how hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is cleared. Genome-wide association studies demonstrated that sequences near a particular interleukin gene (IL-28B) are strongly associated with both spontaneous and treatment-induced HCV clearance (Nature 2009; 461:798 and Nature 2009; 461:399). At the 2010 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, several groups reported that sequences near IL-28B also predict response to pegylated interferon/ribavarin therapy in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients [Rallon N et al. Abstract 165LB and Pineda J et al. Abstract 656].
What are the implications of this work? First, IL-28B genotyping will be a useful clinical tool for predicti…