Discovery offers hope for hep C treatment

SCIENTISTS in Ireland have made a major breakthrough that may lead to the development of a new treatment for hepatitis C.

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have discovered a mechanism used by the blood-borne virus to subvert the human immune system.

They believe a therapy could be developed to block the mechanism that the virus is using and allow the body to fight it off.

Around 20,000 people in Ireland are infected with the virus that attacks the liver. It is particularly well-known because of the scandal involving the blood bank’s use of contaminated blood products.

Latest figures show the death toll among 1,700 people known to have received blood or blood products contaminated with hepatitis C has risen to 188.

Most of those infected were women who received the anti-D product in the late 1970s and early 1990s to protect unborn babies. Other groups infected included people with haemophilia who received contaminated blood clotting products.

Scientists have found that a protein produced by the virus, called E2, switches off the ability of the body’s white cells to stimulate an immune response.

Senior lecturer in molecular medicine at TCD, Dr Aideen Long, said: “When the E2 protein interacts with our white blood cells it actually stuns them — stopping them from working,” she explained.

“If we can identify a way of reversing this inhibition, we could potentially produce new ways of treating hepatitis C virus by allowing the body’s immune response to do the work.”

The research, supported by the Health Research Board, the Higher Education Authority and the Wellcome Trust, is the result of three years’ work by PhD student, Danijela Petrovic, and is published in the leading US journal Hepatology.