When something goes wrong: B cell responses to hepatitis C virus

Understanding humoral responses to hepatitis C virus (HCV) has proven extremely difficult and B cells have generally been neglected because they do not seem to significantly influence the course and outcome of HCV infection. Despite almost all infected patients are positive for virus-specific antibodies, approximately 80% of these individuals develop chronic and often progressive disease, whose major long-term complications are cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma (1,2). Mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC) and B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) may also occur and often dominate the clinical picture of chronic HCV infection (3). It is then assumed that B cells are basically inefficient in resolving HCV infection while they are responsible for its lymphoproliferative complications