Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccination against Hepatitis C Virus (HCV): Developments and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Studies in patients and chimpanzees that spontaneously clear Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) have demonstrated that natural immunity to the virus is induced during primary infections and that this immunity can be cross protective. These discoveries led to optimism regarding prophylactic HCV vaccines and a number of studies in the chimpanzee model have been performed, all of which resulted in modified infections after challenge but did not always prevent persistence of the virus. Therapeutic vaccine strategies have also been pursued in an effort to reduce the costs and side effects associated with anti-viral drug treatment. This review summarizes the studies performed thus far in both patients and chimpanzees for prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination, assesses the progress made and future perspectives.

Keywords: T cells; immune responses; immunotherapy; neutralizing antibody; vaccine.

Figure 1.

Schematic representation of primary and secondary infections with hepatitis C virus. Viral RNA titers in the serum are shown in blue; serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels indicative of hepatitis are shown as a black solid line; seroconversion to anti-HCV antibodies as assessed by commercial assays is shown in red.