A Protease Inhibitor with Induction Therapy with Natural Interferon-β in Patients with HCV Genotype 1b Infection.

The restoration of innate immune responses has potential as a novel therapeutic strategy for chronic hepatitis C (CHC). We compared the efficacy and safety of induction therapy (IT) with natural interferon-β (n-IFN-β) followed by pegylated-IFN-α/ribavirin (PR) alone (group A, n = 30) and IT with a protease inhibitor (PI) (simeprevir or vaniprevir)/PR (group B, n = 13) in CHC patients with genotype 1b and high viral loads. During IT with nIFN-β, virologic response rates in group A and group B were 10% and 8% (p = 0.