{"doi":"10.1007/s15010-024-02433-4","title":"Real-life data of hepatitis C treatment with direct acting antiviral therapy in persons injecting drugs or on opioid substitution therapy","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>HCV treatment has been revolutionized by introduction of direct-acting antiviral therapy (DAA). Short treatment duration of eight to twelve weeks combined with significantly improved tolerability opened the opportunity to reach out to difficult-to-treat populations. Here, we retrospectively analyzed <jats:italic>real life</jats:italic> data on HCV treatment adherence and outcome in people who inject drugs (PWID) or on opioid substitution therapy (OST).</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>All PWID or on OST receiving DAA therapy between 3/2021–11/2022 at an infectious disease clinic in Bonn were retrospectively analyzed. Patients received either 8 weeks glecaprevir/pibrentasvir or 12 weeks sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (+ ribavirin in genotype 3 cirrhotic patients). Sustained virological response (SVR) was measured 4 and 12 weeks after HCV therapy.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>In our cohort 47 patients (68%) received treatment with glecaprevir/pibrentasvir and 22 patients (32%) sofosbuvir/velpatasvir. All 47 (100%) patients started on glecaprevir/pibrentasvir received prescriptions for the full length of therapy, while patients on sofosbuvir/velpatasvir completed 12 weeks therapy in 86% and 8 weeks in 14% (p = 0.029).</jats:p>\n            <jats:p>Of 69 patients 74% were found to achieve SVR. In 20% no information is available as they were lost to follow-up. Re-infection was documented in 3 patients and one relapse in a gt3 patient with cirrhosis.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>High adherence and response rates to HCV treatment were found following DAA based therapy in PWID supporting the call to include difficult-to-treat populations into HCV treatment efforts on the way to HCV elimination. Treatment of OST and HCV at one institution supporting patients by a multidisciplinary team may further facilitate adherence to follow up visits enabling documentation of treatment outcomes more easily.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>","journal":"Infection","year":2025,"id":642183,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1670126,"name":"Duenkelmann S.","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1670128,"name":"Boesecke C","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1670129,"name":"Rockstroh J.K.","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1670131,"name":"Schwarze-Zander C.","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1670124,"name":"Pfaeffle M.","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Real-life data of hepatitis C treatment with direct acting antiviral therapy in persons injecting drugs or on opioid substitution therapy","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>HCV treatment has been revolutionized by introduction of direct-acting antiviral therapy (DAA). Short treatment duration of eight to twelve weeks combined with significantly improved tolerability opened the opportunity to reach out to difficult-to-treat populations. Here, we retrospectively analyzed <jats:italic>real life</jats:italic> data on HCV treatment adherence and outcome in people who inject drugs (PWID) or on opioid substitution therapy (OST).</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>All PWID or on OST receiving DAA therapy between 3/2021–11/2022 at an infectious disease clinic in Bonn were retrospectively analyzed. Patients received either 8 weeks glecaprevir/pibrentasvir or 12 weeks sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (+ ribavirin in genotype 3 cirrhotic patients). Sustained virological response (SVR) was measured 4 and 12 weeks after HCV therapy.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>In our cohort 47 patients (68%) received treatment with glecaprevir/pibrentasvir and 22 patients (32%) sofosbuvir/velpatasvir. All 47 (100%) patients started on glecaprevir/pibrentasvir received prescriptions for the full length of therapy, while patients on sofosbuvir/velpatasvir completed 12 weeks therapy in 86% and 8 weeks in 14% (p = 0.029).</jats:p>\n            <jats:p>Of 69 patients 74% were found to achieve SVR. In 20% no information is available as they were lost to follow-up. Re-infection was documented in 3 patients and one relapse in a gt3 patient with cirrhosis.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n            <jats:p>High adherence and response rates to HCV treatment were found following DAA based therapy in PWID supporting the call to include difficult-to-treat populations into HCV treatment efforts on the way to HCV elimination. Treatment of OST and HCV at one institution supporting patients by a multidisciplinary team may further facilitate adherence to follow up visits enabling documentation of treatment outcomes more easily.</jats:p>\n          </jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"39527344","pmcid":"PMC12137403","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4404224029","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Universitätsklinikum Bonn","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":0.9942,"citation_percentile":0.76176646,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":1},{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"hybrid","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s15010-024-02433-4.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s15010-024-02433-4.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s15010-024-02433-4/fulltext.html","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-024-02433-4","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39527344","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/12137403","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12137403/pdf/15010_2024_Article_2433.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12137403","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12137403?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Hepatitis C virus research","HIV/AIDS drug development and treatment","HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk"],"mesh_terms":["Sofosbuvir","Sustained Virologic Response","Adult","Antiviral Agents","Benzimidazoles","Female","Hepatitis C","Heterocyclic Compounds, 4 or More Rings","Humans","Male","Middle Aged","Pyrrolidines","Quinoxalines","Retrospective Studies","Ribavirin","Sulfonamides","Substance Abuse, Intravenous","Hepacivirus","Treatment Outcome","Hepatitis C, Chronic","Opiate Substitution Treatment"],"keywords":["Antiviral therapy","Medicine","Hepatitis C","Opioid","Pharmacotherapy","Combination therapy","Opiate Substitution Treatment","Substitution therapy","Pharmacology","Intensive care medicine","Virology","Buprenorphine","Internal medicine","Chronic hepatitis","Virus","Receptor","Adherence","HCV","Daa","Pwid"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-07T21:50:17.137425Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}