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Review
. 2012 May;12(5):408-14.
doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(12)70010-5.

Hepatitis C virus clearance, reinfection, and persistence, with insights from studies of injecting drug users: towards a vaccine

Jason Grebely  1 , Maria Prins, Margaret Hellard, Andrea L Cox, William O Osburn, Georg Lauer, Kimberly Page, Andrew R Lloyd, Gregory J Dore; International Collaboration of Incident HIV and Hepatitis C in Injecting Cohorts (InC3)
Affiliations
Review

Hepatitis C virus clearance, reinfection, and persistence, with insights from studies of injecting drug users: towards a vaccine

Jason Grebely et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2012 May.

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was discovered more than two decades ago, but progress towards a vaccine has been slow. HCV infection will spontaneously clear in about 25% of people. Studies of spontaneous HCV clearance in chimpanzees and human beings have identified host and viral factors that could be important in the control of HCV infection and the design of HCV vaccines. Although data from studies of chimpanzees suggest that protection against reinfection is possible after spontaneous clearance, HCV is a human disease. Results from studies of reinfection risk after spontaneous clearance in injecting drug users are conflicting, but some people seem to have protection against HCV persistence. To guide future vaccine development, we assess data from studies of HCV reinfection after spontaneous clearance, discuss flaws in the methods of previous human studies, and suggest essential components for future investigations of control of HCV infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure
Figure. HCV infection, clearance, and reinfection
HCV reinfection events after spontaneous clearance have lower HCV RNA concentrations and shorter infection durations than initial HCV infection. HCV=hepatitis C virus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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