Australian doctors have developed a genetic test that determines which hepatitis C positive (HCV) patients will respond well to treatment.
The test is a Real Time PCR assay to detect a C/T polymorphism on chromosome 19, rs12979860 near IL28B. The IL28B assay uses two Taqman probes complementary to each different allele in PCR reaction.
Microbiologist Dr Volker Gurtler said he was approached by gastroenterologist Dr Paul Froomes from the Austin Hospital in Melbourne to develop the genetic test after an article in Nature showed hep C patients who had the polymorphic gene rs12979860 responded significantly better to treatment medications.
One of the studies in Nature, IDEAL, compared the effectiveness of three treatment regimens involving PegIFN-a-2b or PegIFN-a-2a combined with ribavirin....
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