Severity of liver disease affects HCV kinetics in patients treated with intravenous silibinin monotherapy.

HCV kinetic analysis and modeling during antiviral therapy have not been performed in decompensated cirrhotic patients awaiting liver transplantation. Here, viral and host parameters were compared in patients treated with daily intravenous silibinin (SIL) monotherapy for 7 days according to the severity of their liver disease. Data were obtained from 25 patients, 12 non-cirrhotic, 8 with compensated cirrhosis and 5 with decompensated cirrhosis. The standard-biphasic model with time-varying SIL effectiveness (from 0 to emax) was fit to viral kinetic data. Our results show that baseline viral load and age were significantly associated with the severity of liver disease (p<0.0001). A biphasic viral decline was observed in most patients with a higher first phase decline patients with less severe liver disease. The maximal effectiveness, emax, was significantly (p≤0.032) associated with increasing severity of liver disease (emax[s.e.]=0.86[0.05], emax=0.69[0.06] and emax=0.59[0.1]). The 2nd phase decline slope was not significantly different among groups (mean 1.88±0.15 log10IU/ml/wk, p=0.75) as was the rate of change of SIL effectiveness (k=2.12/day[standard error, SE=0.18/day]). HCV-infected cell loss rate (δ[SE]=0.62/day[0.05/day]) was high and similar among groups. We conclude that the high loss rate of HCV-infected cells suggests that sufficient dose and duration of SIL might achieve viral suppression in advancedmore » liver disease.« less