Fiche publication
Date publication
novembre 2008
Auteurs
Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr BAUMERT Thomas
Tous les auteurs :
Stoll-Keller F, Fafi-Kremer S, Wolf P, Doffoel M, Baumert T
Lien Pubmed
Résumé
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease. About 170 million people worldwide are chronically infected. No preventive or therapeutic vaccine is available. Current antiviral combinations based on pegylated interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) and ribavirin have limited efficacy, poor tolerability and high cost. End-stage liver disease due to chronic HCV infection is a leading indication for liver transplantation (LT). However, re-infection of the liver graft is inevitable, with a high risk of cirrhosis within 5 years. To infect the graft, circulating virions need to attach to and enter hepatocytes, via viral envelope glycoproteins E1-E2. E1-E2 can react with cell receptors despite the presence of neutralizing antibodies. Using the HCV pseudoparticle model system, we found that viral strains selected after liver transplantation are characterized by high infectivity and that they are poorly neutralized by autologous post-transplant serum. A better understanding of the early steps of viral attachment and escape from neutralizing antibodies could lead to novel antiviral strategies.
Référence
Bull Acad Natl Med. 2008 Nov;192(8):1657-67; discussion 1667-8.
