immune study opens window on hep c virus
zwalanga_at_yahoo.com
Date: 02/27/05
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Date: 27 Feb 2005 15:09:03 -0800
http://www.medicine.uottawa.ca/microbio/bmi/eng/core-members/brown.html
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/02/22/hepatitis-C050222.html
Immune study opens window on hepatitis C virus
Last Updated Wed, 23 Feb 2005 11:15:52 EST
CBC News
OTTAWA - Canadian and U.S. researchers think they've found the secret
of how the hepatitis C virus camouflages itself from our immune system.
Blood from a man infected with Hep C in hospital has helped scientists
learn more about the virus.
Hepatitis C chronically infects nearly 200 million people globally, but
scientists know little about how it evades detection by the immune
system.
Now, researchers have a way to reproduce the virus in the lab, a
finding that may allow them to better understand its life cycle and
test potential antiviral compounds.
The model viral particles seem to act like a whole virus by infecting
human liver cells and copying themselves, said Dr. Jake Liang of the
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in
Bethesda, Md.
Liang's study appears in this week's issue of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
The strain of the virus Liang studied is the major type behind human
infections worldwide, which is most resistant to current therapies.
The viral strain doesn't trigger an immune response because its
external coat resembles immunoglobulin, part of the immune system's
arsenal.
Hep C may evolve to keep up its camouflage or improve it over time,
which could complicate efforts to develop a vaccine, said the authors
of a second study.
In this week's issue of the journal Virology, Prof. Earl Brown of the
University of Ottawa and his colleagues said the viral coating prevents
the immune system from recognizing the invader and killing it.
The Ottawa team studied samples from an infected blood donor who was
identified during heightened screening following Canada's tainted blood
scandal.
About 240,000 Canadians suffer from hepatitis C, a disease that causes
inflammation of the liver, and in some cases, severe damage or cancer
in the organ.
Some people may appear tired and jaundiced during the initial infection
phase, but many show no symptoms.
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