Rabaan AA, Al-Ahmed SH, Bazzi AM, Alfouzan WA, Alsuliman SA, Aldrazi FA, Haque S. Overview of hepatitis C infection, molecular biology, and new treatment.
J Infect Public Health 2019;
13:773-783. [PMID:
31870632 DOI:
10.1016/j.jiph.2019.11.015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Revised: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The World Health Organization estimates that 71 million people worldwide have chronic hepatitis C viral infection. A major challenge is overall lack of public awareness of hepatitis C, particularly among infected people of their infection status. Chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with advanced liver disease, is the main cause of hepatocellular carcinoma and causes many extra-hepatic manifestations. The existence of seven viral genotypes complicates targeting of treatment. Recent years have seen the approval of many direct acting antivirals targeted at hepatitis C virus non-structural proteins. These have revolutionized therapy as they allow achievement of extremely high sustained virologic responses. Of great significance is the development of pan-genotypic drug combinations, including the NS3/4A-NS5A inhibitor combinations sofosbuvir-velpatasvir and glecaprevir-pibrentasvir. However, resistance-associated mutations can result in failure of these treatments in a small number of patients. This, combined with the high costs of treatment, highlights the importance of continued research into effective anti-hepatitis C therapies, for example aimed at viral entry. Recent developments include identification of the potential of low-cost anti-histamines for repurposing as inhibitors of hepatitis C viral entry. In this review we focus on molecular biology of hepatitis C virus, and the new developments in hepatitis C treatment.
Collapse