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Researchers report success in
blocking the hepatitis C virus’s ability to colonize liver cells in 18
hepatitis C-infected patients with five weeks of treatment using the antisense
oligonucleotide miravirsen. Fourteen weeks after miravirsen injections ended,
hepatitis C viral loads were still undetectable in 5 of 18 patients.
Miravirsen binds tightly to
messenger proteins of liver cells and blocks the hepatitis C virus from
colonizing the proteins, which the virus needs to survive and replicate.
Without a foothold in liver cells, the hepatitis C virus does not have the
chance to develop resistance to protease inhibitors such as teleprevir and
boceprivir. As a result, hepatitis C patients could be able to stop taking interferon
and ribavirin, which cause side effects like fatigue, anxiety, depression,
flu-like symptoms, nausea, and diarrhea.
Harvard University physician Dr.
Judy Lieberman and Stanford University professor Dr. Peter Sarnow cautioned
that long-term miravirsen use could be unsafe because it also targets “genetic
material that helps suppress the development of fatty liver, liver fibrosis,
and liver tumors”—side effects of hepatitis C. Miravirsen does offer the side
benefit of lowering cholesterol; hepatitis C patients taking protease
inhibitors cannot take statins that lower cholesterol.
Although miravirsen might not
present a safe cure for hepatitis C, Sarnow and Lieberman stated that
miravirsen could become part of a drug regimen that can keep hepatitis under
control. Worldwide, 170 million people are infected with hepatitis C.
The full study, “Treatment of HCV
Infection by Targeting MicroRNA,” was published online in the New England
Journal of Medicine (2013; doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1209026).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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