Hello Penn,
There is quiet a strong association between autoimmunity and Hepatitis C. The immune-related extrahepatic manifestations include:
- Mixed cryoglobulinemia
- Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis
- B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
- Sicca syndrome
- Arthralgia/myalgia
- Polyarthritis/fibromyalgia
- Autoantibody production (i.e. cryoglobulins, rheumatoid factor, and antinuclear, anticardiolipin, antithyroid and anti-smooth muscle antibodies)
- Polyarteritis nodosa
- Monoclonal gammopathies
- Immune thrombocytopenia
- Glomerulonephritis and renal insufficiency
This article speaks to your questions
rmdopen.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000008 with the answer "we just don't know".
This article says "use DMARDs with caution in HCV"
www.eurjrheumatol.org/sayilar/211/buyuk/194-9.pdf
This article suggests slightly lower SVR rates in patients with autoimmunity
bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000203
There is a tiny 3 case series here
bmcgastroenterol.biomedcentral.com/artic...86/s12876-018-0826-7 showing a transient fall in autoantibodies during treatment
But in terms of a study that said something like "patients with HCV and autoimmunity have reduced autoimmunity on and after HCV treatment" - as far as I know nobody has done a large trial to answer that one way or another.
It sounds like you are weighing up treatment options?