Technical and Commercial Feasibility of a blood test for prediction of response to interferon treatment in Chronic Hepatitis B patients

乙型肝炎是世界上最常见的慢性病毒性疾病，有超过3.5亿慢性携带者。考虑到最近的移民模式，估计现在英国有超过30万人感染HBV，其中78,000人感染慢性乙型肝炎。NICE建议使用干扰素作为慢性乙型肝炎的一线治疗方法。然而，干扰素治疗持续时间长（6-12个月），有相当大的副作用，包括发烧、神经系统和胃肠道疾病，而且可能非常有效，只有30%的患者对治疗有反应。ProteinLogic已经确定了一种生物标志物，可以作为一种简单的诊断血液测试，用于预测慢性HBV感染患者在治疗开始前对干扰素治疗的反应，因此为患者提供了显著的好处，并节省了英国和全世界的医疗成本。

Hepatitis B is the most common chronic viral disease in the world with over 350 million chronic carriers. Taking into account the recent migration patterns it is estimated that that there are now more than 300,000 people in the UK with HBV infection and, of these, 78,000 have Chronic Hepatitis B infection. NICE recommends that interferon be used as the first line treatment for Chronic Hepatitis B. However interferon treatment has a long duration (6-12 months), considerable side effects including fever, neurological and gastrointestinal disorders and whilst it can be very effective only 30% of patients respond to treatment. ProteinLogic has identified biomarkers that can be used as a simple diagnostic blood test for the prediction of response to treatment with interferon in patients with chronic HBV infection before start of treatment, therefore providing significant benefits to patients and saving healthcare costs in the UK and worldwide.