After the administration
period, patients returned for follow-up visits for a period of 14 weeks. Patients were allowed to start PR therapy at the discretion of the investigator 3 weeks (patients dosed with 3 mg/kg) or 6 weeks (patients dosed with 5 or 7 mg/kg) after completion of miravirsen or placebo dosing. Patients were treated with pegylated interferon alfa-2a (dose 180 μg/0.5 ml) and weight-based doses of ribavirin (1000 mg for ⩽75 kg and 1200 mg for >75 kg). Treatment response was subdivided in virological breakthrough, virological relapse, non-response or SVR. Virological breakthrough selleck chemical refers to the reappearance of HCV RNA before treatment is completed. Virological relapse was defined as a decrease in HCV RNA below
the limit of detection during treatment, but detectable HCV RNA after treatment was stopped. MK-8776 in vitro Non-response was defined as <2 log decline of HCV RNA at week 12 or HCV RNA positive HCV RNA at week 24 during treatment. SVR was defined as undetectable HCV RNA 24 weeks after treatment was stopped. A rapid viral response (RVR) was defined as undetectable HCV RNA at week 4 during treatment. End points regarding safety were liver failure (such as ascites, jaundice, variceal bleeding or hepatic encephalopathy), liver transplantation, HCC, hospitalization or death. We collected prolonged follow-up data to assess the long-term efficacy and safety. The obtained data included clinical safety data, local laboratory results, virological responses to PR therapy, side effects and stage/grade of liver disease (fibroscan or liver biopsy). The aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI) score was calculated by the formula: (AST/reference
AST)/(platelets × 100). The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Review Committee of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam and was carried out in compliance with the protocol, the principles crotamiton laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, in accordance with the ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline for Good Clinical Practice and the local national laws governing the conduct of clinical research studies. To compare the baseline characteristics and outcome measures of the study groups we used the Student’s t-, one-way ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis, and χ2 tests. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. All analyses were performed with the use of SPSS, version 20. This study included 36 patients of whom 27 had received various doses of miravirsen and nine received placebo. Baseline characteristics were similar among the four study groups (Table 1). PR therapy was initiated in 14 (39%) patients. Five subcutaneous injections with miravirsen resulted in a prolonged and dose-dependent decrease in HCV RNA levels (Janssen et al., 2013). The mean of the maximum reduction in HCV RNA levels (log 10 IU/mL) from baseline was 1.2 (p = 0.01) for patients receiving 3 mg/kg, 2.9 (p = 0.003) for those receiving 5 mg/kg, and 3.0 (p = 0.