Development of HCV Vaccine
The new advancements in the field of hepatology have increased the survival rate of the patients suffering from hepatitis. The success of liver transplantation and new methods used in radiological and endoscopic management has improved the quality of life for the sufferers of hepatitis. New antiviral treatments can cure the patients infected with the virus of hepatitis B and C.
The virus of hepatitis C is highly specialized and humans are the natural hosts of this virus. Other living beings which are affected are the chimpanzees in the labs. Around the world about 170 million people are infected with the virus of Hepatitis C and the chronic infection also increases the risk of developing liver cancer. The vaccines to combat this virus are developed globally. The problem is that the results are evident in the liver cell cultures, but when it is tried to find out how immune system woks for controlling the infection and whether the vaccines are effective or not; these tests do not provide the accurate results at such an early stage.
Thus the vaccines are planned to test on the mice because the immune system of mice is similar to that of humans. It also helps to analyze the next stage of this disease in future. If this experiment is successful on mice, it can only be then transferred safely to humans. The reason that the virus only affects the humans and chimpanzees is because of the complicated processes through which it acquires the living cells. It binds the four molecules on the surface of the liver and then a mechanism is initiated which transports the virus to the liver. These molecules are also present on the surface of the liver of mice.
Particularly the difficulty arises due to the molecules of CD81 and occluding, this need to be of the humans otherwise there is no way that a virus infects the liver cells. To handle this problem, the CD81 of humans are removed and placed on the liver of mice. With the help of the electrical field, the virus is repeatedly inserted in the mice so to prepare it for testing the vaccine. This is important for the development of HCV vaccine.
