Analysis of the ex vivo interferon-alpha response in patients with chronic hepatitis B after initiation of antiviral therapy with adefovir

Background and aims: The currently approved therapeutic regimen for treatment of chronic hepatitis B include interferon-alpha, lamivudine and adefovir. However, only a minority of patients treated with these agents has a long-term sustained response with ‘eradication’ of the virus. Patients with a high viral load in particular only very rarely respond to IFN therapy. We therefore aimed to determine whether PBMC from HBV patients with a high viral load have a suppressed IFN-response and if the response to IFN is modulated by treatment with the nucleotide analogue adefovir. Methods: PBMC were isolated from 28 pati…