Last year's award went to two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a third from Harvard University, for their groundbreaking research into efforts to reduce global poverty.
The New York-born Gluck, 77, is the 16th woman to win the prestigious prize and the first American to receive it since singer-lyricist Bob Dylan in 2016.
Alter, Houghton and Rice made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of the Hepatitis C virus, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said.