Definition: In this task, you're given a paragraph from the research paper and your task is to generate a suitable title for the research paper based on the given paper. Under 100 words is a good title length.
Input: Hepatitis C affects about 3% of the world population, yet its current treatment options are limited to interferon-ribavirin drug regimens which achieve a 50-70% cure rate depending on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype. Besides extensive screening for HCV-specific compounds, some wellestablished medicinal drugs have recently demonstrated anti-HCV effect in HCV replicon cells. One of these drugs is arbidol (ARB), a Russian-made broad spectrum antiviral agent, which we have previously shown to inhibit acute and chronic HCV infection. Here we show that ARB inhibits the cell entry of HCV pseudoparticles of genotypes 1a, 1b and 2a in a dose-dependent fashion. ARB also displayed a dose-dependent inhibition of HCV membrane fusion, as assayed by using HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) and fluorescent liposomes. ARB inhibition of HCVpp fusion was found more effective on genotype 1a than on genotypes 1b and 2a. In vitro biochemical studies revealed ARB association with membrane-like environments such as detergents, and with lipid membranes. This association was particularly prominent at acidic pH which is optimal for HCV-mediated fusion. Our results suggest that the affinity of ARB for lipid membranes could account for its anti-HCV actions, together with a differential level of interaction with key motifs in HCV glycoproteins of different genotypes. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects an estimated 3% or 170 million of the world's population, and hepatitis C is now the most frequent indication for liver transplantation. Current treatment options are limited to pegylated recombinant interferon alpha (IFN-α) in combination with ribavirin. However viremia eradication is variably achieved depending on the genotype, with only 50% of virus eradication in genotype 1-infected patients. This is clearly a problem in North America, Europe and Japan, where genotype 1 is the most prevalent genotype. HCV † This work was supported by the ANRS (Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA et les hepatites virales) to E.I.P.

Biochemical mechanism of hepatitis C virus inhibition by the broad-spectrum antiviral arbidol † NIH Public Access Author Manuscript