Hepatitis C virus and vaccine development

Abstract

The prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is approximately 3% around the world. This virus causes chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The effectiveness of interferon-α and ribavirin therapy is about 50% and is associated with significant toxicity and cost. Hence, generating new vaccines or drugs is an obligation. However, there is no vaccine available for clinical use. DNA vaccines have some advantages such as producing feasibility and generating intensive cellular and humoral immune responses. Activation and improvement of natural immune defense mechanisms is a necessity for the development of an effective HCV vaccine. This article discusses the current status of therapies for hepatitis C, the promising new therapies and the experimental strategies to develop an HCV vaccine.

Keywords: DNA vaccine; HCV; IFN- α; cellular immune response.

Fig. 1

HCV versus the immune system (47). We kindly acknowledge the Indian academy of sciences for permission to reprint Figure 2 in: Pavio N, Lai MMC. The hepatitis C virus persistence: how to evade the immune system . J Biosci 2003; 28(3):287-304

Fig. 2.

Potential HCV vaccines in clinical phase development. The vaccines are based on either prophylactic or therapeutic usage in phase I, phase I/ II or phase II development (no HCV- specific vaccine has reached phase III development yet). The biological component(s) of the vaccine is listed on top of the arrow. Sponsor or company conducting the trial is listed at the end of arrow along with clinical ID number (http :// www. clinicaltrials.gov) (48). The article has been distributed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). The authors and the Nature Publishing Group are fully acknowledged