'Test tube' hope for hep C drug
- From: alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Alan)
- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:51 +0100 (BST)
US scientists have been able to create infectious hepatitis C in the lab for the
first time, offering renewed hope of drugs to beat the virus.
Hepatitis C is a major cause of chronic and sometimes fatal liver disease,
affecting 170 million people worldwide.
The virus, HCV, is carried in and can be passed on via the blood.
Currently, it is treated with a combination of two drugs, but about 40% of
patients do not respond to this therapy.
Like all viruses, hepatitis C cannot replicate by itself. It takes over the
machinery of the host cell.
However, much about the life cycle of the virus remains poorly understood
because, until now, scientists have been unable to reproduce an infectious form
of HCV that they can observe and experiment on in the lab.
"This system lays the foundation for future test tube studies of the virus life
cycle and may help in the development of new drugs for combating HCV," said
researcher Dr Charles Rice from the Infectious Diseases Unit at Rockefeller
University.
Achilles' heel
He told the journal Science how in a separate set of experiments they were able
to use the lab-grown virus to confirm that a molecule called CD81, which sits on
the surface of human cells, plays a crucial role in the entry of HCV.
They found that CD81 molecules which were not attached to the surface of host
cells competed with cell-bound CD81 and blocked the entry of HCV into the cell.
Furthermore, cells that did not express CD81 were immune to infection.
Scientists already know that a protein produced by HCV, called E2, binds to
CD81. It is believed this interaction is necessary for the virus to bind to host
cells.
Chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust and president of the European Liver
Patients Association, Charles Gore, said: "Treatment for hepatitis C has
improved dramatically in recent years but there is still considerable room for
improvement.
"This is one of the reasons why so few - just one-half to one percent - of those
with this unacknowledged virus are getting treated each year.
"Any advances that can contribute to improved therapy, and especially the
development of a vaccine, are good news for patients."
Dr Teo, consultant virologist at the Centre for Infections, the Health
Protection Agency, said: "The ability to culture HCV is the holy grail of HCV
research because this will help with improving testing techniques, allow better
understanding about how the virus causes illness and help us to explore better
treatments for the disease."
The original story is at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4073908.stm
Alan
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