Potential New Therapy Approach For Hepatitis C Could Benefit 170 Million People Affected Worldwide

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Potential New Therapy Approach For Hepatitis C Could Benefit 170

Million People Affected Worldwide

From Medical News Today...I don't post all the information they have

on Hepatitis C, but my website gets updated automatically.

www.ke5asu.com/links.html

Just thought I would post this one.

17 Jan 2012

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a new

way to block infection from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the liver

that could lead to new therapies for those affected by this and

other infectious diseases.

More than 170 million people worldwide suffer from hepatitis C, the

disease caused by chronic HCV infection. The disease affects the

liver and is one of the leading causes of liver cancer and liver

transplant around the world. HCV is spread by blood-to-blood contact

and there is no vaccine to prevent it. Current treatments for the

disease are only moderately effective and can cause serious side

effects.

"As HCV infects a person, it needs fat droplets in the liver to form

new virus particles," says François Associate Professor in the

Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Scientific Director of

the Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER)

at UBC. "In the process, it causes fat to accumulate in the liver

and ultimately leads to chronic dysfunction of the organ."

"HCV is constantly mutating, which makes it difficult to develop

antiviral therapies that target the virus itself," says Jean. "So we

decided to take a new approach."

and his team developed an inhibitor that decreases the size of

host fat droplets in liver cells and stops HCV from "taking

residence," multiplying and infecting other cells.

"Our approach would essentially block the lifecycle of the virus so

that it cannot spread and cause further damage to the liver," says

Jean. The team's method is detailed in the journal PLoS

Pathogens.

According to HCV is one of a number of viruses that require

fat to replicate in the human body. This new approach to curbing the

replication of HCV could translate into similar therapies for other

related re-emerging viruses that can cause serious and life

threatening infections in humans, such as dengue virus. Dengue is

endemic in more than 100 countries, with approximately 2.5 billion

people at risk of infection globally. In some countries, Dengue has

become the leading cause of child mortality.

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240370.php

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--

Bill Eastman

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