Team finds potential path for hepatitis C drugs

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Team finds potential path for hepatitis C drugs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have identified a new class of drugs that

appear to block the hepatitis C virus from replicating in laboratory

experiments, researchers said on Wednesday.

Health

The team discovered activity within a key protein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV)

essential for the virus to reproduce, they reported in the online journal

Science Translational Medicine.

The researchers also identified small molecules capable of inhibiting

replication of the virus, senior author Dr. Glenn of Stanford University

said in a telephone interview.

Glenn and colleagues then set out to look for compounds that could prevent the

protein from working.

" The compounds we discovered represent a new class of potential drugs that

appear to specifically attack the virus's ability to set up shop in the liver

cells, " said Glenn, director of Stanford's Center for Hepatitis and Liver Tissue

Engineering,.

" Hepatitis C creates a novice structure in the infected cell where it replicates

and it looks like this class of compounds interferes with the virus's ability to

establish that structure, " he said.

Glenn said he expects derivatives of the compounds to go into human trials

within 18 months, after additional preclinical and animal testing.

Glenn and several members of his team have an equity interest in Eiger

BioPharmaceuticals, a privately held start-up based in Palo Alto, California

that is seeking to develop this new class of drugs. Stanford University has

filed patents for the compounds, which have been licensed to Eiger.

Hepatitis C infects more than 150 million people worldwide and is the leading

cause of chronic liver cancer and liver transplants in the United States.

Glenn said the current therapy for Hepatitis C, combinations of interferon and

ribavirin, is only somewhat effective and often toxic.

Glenn said the first goal is to add new drugs to that combination. The next step

would be to have enough new drugs in a mix to effectively fight the virus.

" We need a cocktail of multiple drugs because this virus has a very high rate of

developing resistance, " Glenn said. " We really need to hit it from multiple

angles at the same time to decrease the chances that any mutation that occurs in

the virus could overcome all the drugs at the same time. "

(Editing by Alan Elsner