HCV Vaccine, what do you think?

[happyhepper2010]

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/mt/archives/2007/09/future_hcv_medi.html

Using inactivated Hepatitis C particles, a Japanese company has successfully suppressed the Hepatitis C virus in mice. This scientific development holds enormous potential as a Hepatitis C vaccine and possibly as a therapeutic medication for those already infecte

[Fritzlop]

Early trials have been very promising.  It is another tool that might someday be included to improve treatment options.

[spectda]

This article talks about the difficulty of creating and testing a vaccine:
http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hep_c/news/2009/041409_a.html


"The Current Status of HCV Vaccine Development

With the high global disease burden and public health impact of hepatitis C, development of an effective vaccine is of major importance. However, many challenging obstacles loom ahead of this goal. The hepatitis C virus (HCV), being an RNA virus, can mutate rapidly, thus contributing to the high sequence divergence of multiple viral isolates in the world.

The highest heterogeneity has been found in the hypervariable region of the envelope glycoprotein 2. HCV also causes persistent infection in a high percentage of immunocompetent hosts despite active immune response. Previous observations that convalescent humans and chimpanzees could be readily re-infected following re-exposure to HCV suggest a lack of induction of protective immunity even from natural infection. The lack of a robust tissue culture system for propagating HCV and testing neutralizing antibodies until recently further complicate the task of vaccine development.

Recent advances render a more optimistic assessment to the development of an HCV vaccine. The immunologic correlates associated with viral clearance and disease progression are being defined. Many recent studies demonstrate that a vigorous multispecific cellular immune response is important in the resolution of infection. Furthermore, spontaneous clearance of the virus can occur in up to 50% of acute infections.

Therefore, if we could understand the mechanisms of viral clearance, we should be able to recapitulate these immune responses by appropriately targeting the vaccine. Recent studies in humans and chimpanzees also demonstrated the existence of natural protective immunity after convalescence from a previous infection. But this protection is usually at the level of prevention to chronic infection rather than prevention of acute reinfection upon re-exposure. This definition of protection against chronic infection has become widely accepted in vaccine development against chronic viral infection, such as HIV, because chronic infection is the well-established cause of disease."

[spectda]

I may have missed something current but I wasn't able to find a lot of information since 2007 when this was published. Hopefully it will be possible some day as well as for HIV.

I have a friend who is about to participate in a study at CPMC about people who have been able to clear hcv in the acute stage on their own.

Thanks for posting the information
- Dave