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. 2015 Apr 17;4(4):231–242. doi: 10.1002/psp4.28

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Illustration of the cure boundary (viral eradication). Viral eradication is considered as achieved once the predicted total HCV RNA is lower than one copy in the entire extracellular fluid volume, assumed to be 15L, which corresponds to a viral concentration of 6.7 x 10-5 HCV RNA/mL. Once the viral load is predicted to cross this boundary, HCV is considered eradicated. The cure boundary can be based on the last infected cell instead of last virion. The cure boundary makes the assumption that the HCV RNA decline rate is the same before and after it crosses the assay limit of detection (orange dotted line). This may not be correct, for instance, when resistance or reservoirs lead to a slowing of the viral decline (red dotted line), or, on the other hand, if there are mechanisms leading to an acceleration of the viral decline (due, for instance, to restored immune capabilities).