Panel A shows luciferase activity for IFN-alpha treatment positive, IFN-alpha treatment negative, and healthy controls. The y-axis represents luciferase activity in percent, ranging from 0.1 to 1000 percent, and the x-axis labels the groups. Panel B shows similar data for another IFN treatment, with the same y-axis range and x-axis labels. Panel C compares luciferase activity between IFN-alpha treatment positive and negative groups, with the same y-axis range and x-axis labels. Each plot includes a cut-off line at 15 percent luciferase activity. The data points are color-coded: red for IFN-alpha treatment positive, blue for IFN-alpha treatment negative, and green for healthy controls. The plots indicate the prevalence of AAN-IFN and statistical comparisons between groups.
Neutralization assays against IFN-ω and IFN-β in the selected subcohort. (A) Neutralization assay against IFN-ω in a randomly selected subcohort representative of the overall cohort with respect to age, sex, and the prevalence of AAN-IFN-α2. The subcohort included 463 hepatitis C patients with IFN-α, 512 hepatitis C patients without IFN-α, and 686 healthy controls. The prevalence of AAN-IFN-ω was 0.6% (3/463), 1.3% (7/512), and 1.0% (7/686), respectively. No significant difference was observed between the IFN-α–treated and untreated groups or between the untreated group and healthy controls (P = 0.35 and P = 0.60, respectively). (B) Neutralization assay against IFN-β in the same subcohort. The prevalence of AAN-IFN-β was 0% (0/463), 0% (0/512), and 0.29% (2/686) in the IFN-α–treated group, untreated group, and healthy controls, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the IFN-α–treated group and healthy controls or between the untreated group and healthy controls (P = 0.52 and P = 0.51, respectively). (C) IFN-ω (100 pg/ml) neutralization assay in hepatitis C patients with AAN-IFN-α2 (100 pg/ml), with and without IFN-α treatment. The positivity rate was 18.6% (8/43) in the IFN-α treatment (+) group and 37.0% (10/27) in the IFN-α treatment (−) group (P = 0.10).