Small genetic variant can predict response to hepatitis C treatment
Saturday, June 12, 2010 - 17:01
in Health & Medicine
A small genetic change can predict how people infected with hepatitis C react to treatment, paving the way to personalised therapy for this difficult to treat disease, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear today. Dr. Zoltan Kutalik, from the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, will tell delegates that individuals with this change, in a gene encoding for the antiviral cytokine (cell-signalling molecule) interferon lamda, reacts less well to treatment. This knowledge could spare them the unpleasant side effects of a therapy which most likely would have little benefit for them, he says.