Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the most important causes of chronic liver disease and infection can lead ultimately to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Current standard-of-care treatment – a combination of pegylated α-interferon and ribavirin – is unable to…
Blog Archives
Cutting off Lipid Supply Halts HCV
New research has shown that compounds that affect cellular energy status could also be used to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Metformin, which is used to treat type II diabetes, and 5-amino-1-β-D-ribofuranosyl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxamide (AICAR), which has been shown to mimic…
Targeting Influenza A Nucleoprotein
Although the recent sporadic outbreaks of influenza A virus H5N1 and of a new variant of H1N1 in 2009 were less serious than initially feared, public health responses gave an indication of the potential for pandemic influenza A to wreak…
HIV drugs could treat prostate cancer and CFS – if they are caused by XMRV
The retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), has been – controversially – linked to both prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). In an attempt to clarify the association of XMRV with disease, researchers at Emory University are developing…
Mouse Model of Liver Disease
Although very different at a molecular level, hepatitis viruses B and C (HBV and HCV) both infect only humans and chimpanzees which means that there is a lack of suitable small animal models for studying viral lifecycles and for testing…
Enzyme Deficiency Protects from Ribavirin-Related Anaemia
Some 200 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) which can eventually lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and in some cases, death. The current standard-of-care treatment for persistent infection – a combination of…
Virus-like Particles Protect against Chikungunya Virus Infection.
Chikungunya is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes which causes fever and severe joint pain – the name derives from a verb meaning ‘to become contorted’ and describes the appearance of sufferers bent with pain. Chikungunya is an alphavirus of…
Keeping out Newcomers Helps Virus Spread
For more than 50 years, it has been supposed that the rate of spread of viruses is limited by replication kinetics in an iterative process of infection, replication and release, but scientists at Imperial College London have now challenged this…
What Doesn’t Kill Them Makes Them Stronger
The concept of ‘lethal mutagenesis’ has been developed as a means of curing viral infections and has also been used to explain the action of some antiviral drugs. Although mutation is the basis for adaptation and survival, especially in the…
Immune Response to Swine Flu May Explain Disease Severity
The pandemic swine flu (H1N1) virus has proved to be less lethal than originally feared but, although most infected individuals experience relatively mild and self-limiting symptoms, some patients with no previous underlying medical condition have died. An international team of…
