Why is Hepatitis Virus so Stubborn?
Scientists at two Texas universities say they’ve discovered how the hepatitis C virus (HCV) thwarts the human body’s attempts to kill it. As HCV begins to replicate inside the body, it manufactures certain enzymes called proteases. One of these, NS3/4A, interferes with the molecular master switch that “turns on” the immune system’s response to a viral invasion. Without this master switch, the body’s attempts to fight off the virus never begin, say scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Once the scientists inhibited the harmful protease, the body’s immune system reduced the virus to nearly undetectable levels within days, according to the study’s authors, who are cited in a prepared statement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the study. The findings will help researchers devise new drugs to combat the virus, which is usually transmitted through the sharing of
