Panel A shows a horizontal bar graph depicting the age and sex distribution of hepatitis C patients. The x-axis represents the number of patients, and the y-axis represents age groups in years. The blue bars correspond to male patients, and the pink bars correspond to female patients. Panel B shows a similar horizontal bar graph for hepatitis C patients without IFN-alpha treatment. Panel C presents a dot plot for the IFN-alpha neutralization assay in hepatitis C patients and healthy controls. The y-axis represents luciferase activity in percent, and the x-axis categorizes the groups into hepatitis patients and healthy controls. Panel D shows a dot plot of the neutralization assay on hepatitis C patients treated with IFN-alpha, untreated patients, and healthy controls. Panel E displays a dot plot of the neutralization assay using human cell-derived IFN-α in samples positive for autoantibodies against IFN-alpha. Panel F shows a dot plot of the neutralization assay using a higher concentration of IFN-α in hepatitis C patients with autoantibodies against IFN-alpha.
IFN-α2 neutralization assays on serum from hepatitis patients and healthy controls. (A) Age and sex distributions of hepatitis C patients treated with IFN-α (n = 1,115). The blue bar corresponds to male patients, and the pink bar corresponds to female patients. The median age was 64 years (range: 10–87 years); 60.3% of the patients were male, and 39.7% were female. (B) Age and sex distributions of hepatitis C patients without IFN-α treatment (n = 1,458). The blue bar corresponds to male patients, and the pink bar corresponds to female patients. The median age was 70 years (range: 1–95 years); 52.1% of the patients were male, and 47.9% were female. (C) Dot plot for the IFN-α2 (100 pg/ml) neutralization assay in 2,573 hepatitis C patients and 1,000 healthy controls. Samples were considered to have AAN-I-IFNs if luciferase activity was below 15%. The positivity rate was significantly higher in hepatitis C patients (70/2,573: 2.7%) than in healthy controls (7/1,000: 0.7%) (P < 0.001). (D) Dot plot of the neutralization assay in 1,115 hepatitis C patients treated with IFN-α, 1,458 patients without IFN-α, and 1,000 healthy controls. The positivity rate was significantly higher in hepatitis C patients treated with IFN-α (43/1,115: 3.9%) than in untreated hepatitis C patients (27/1,458: 1.9%) (P = 0.0053). (E) Neutralization assay using human cell–derived IFN-α2 (100 pg/ml) in 77 samples positive for AAN-IFN-α2 in the assay using E. coli–derived IFN-α2. Neutralizing activity was detected in all samples. (F) Neutralization assay using a higher concentration of IFN-α2 (10 ng/ml) in hepatitis C patients who had AAN-IFN-α2 (100 pg/ml). AAN-IFN-α2 (10 ng/ml) was detected in 7 of 43 patients with IFN-α and 8 of 27 patients without IFN-α, corresponding to 0.63% (7/1,115) and 0.55% (8/1,458) of the respective overall groups. The prevalence did not differ significantly between the two groups (P = 0.80).