Drug shows promise in busting Hepatitis C virus Washington, Feb
19 : Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 4.1 million
people in the United States alone and is the primary cause of
liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Current therapy against the
infection is not particularly effective. Daclatasvir, a direct
acting antiviral (DAA) agent, targets one of the HCV proteins
NS5A and causes the fastest viral decline, within 12 hours of
treatment ever seen with anti-HCV drugs. An interdisciplinary
effort by mathematical modellers, clinicians and molecular
virologists has revealed that daclatasvir has two main modes of
action against HCV and also yields a new, more accurate estimate
of the HCV half-life, the journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences reports. "Ultimately, our study will help
design better DAA drug cocktails to treat HCV," said Loyola
University Health System (LUHS) and Stritch School of Medicine
(SSOM) mathematical modeller Harel Dahari, who co-led the study.
Dahari is one of five