Defense Mechanism of the Immune System Against Hepatitis C Infection

Hepatitis C is an inflammatory process caused by a virus of the genus Hepacivirus. It can be triggered acutely or chronically, the latter being predominant. Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has a worldwide prevalence in about 1% of the population. Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) has a diverse genetic variety, which makes its elimination difficult.The present work emerges as a need to understand the mechanisms of defense action against HCV in the human body. The study was based on a literature review, based on research in articles from the SciELO and PubMed platforms, using the descriptors hepatitis C, genetics and immune system associated through the Boolean operators OR and AND. In the end, 15 articles were selected that guided the research of the work. In research, it was found that the virus infection can present in the acute phase or in the chronic phase, in which most cases tend to progress from an acute infection barely detectable by the immune system to a persistent chronic infection. In addition, it was observed that T cells during the chronic phase have their ability to resolve reduced, because, in the acute phase, because of the virus, a large variability does not allow T cells to create neutralizing antibodies or memory cells, therefore, when they present the chronic stage, it causes these defense cells to collapse. Much progress has been made in understanding the immune mechanisms that HCV stimulates, however there are still many gaps that need to be closed.