Discovering and Curing Hepatitis C
in: Prosperity , Health and Well-Being
federal funding led to the discovery and cure of the Hepatitis C virus.
Hepatitis C (HCV) is a virus that primarily attacks the liver, and when left untreated, causes liver scarring, cancer, and death. Nowadays, thanks to medical research funded by the government, it is curable 90% of the time.
Though scientists had classified Hepatitis C as a disease in the 1970s, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the virus causing Hepatitis C was discovered, through work funded by the National Institute of Health, and conducted at the Chiron Corporation.
There, Michael Hughton, Qui-Lim Choo and George Kuo took a new approach to isolate the virus. While scientists before them had tried to find the virus by viewing it in an electron microscope, the team instead tried to find the virus’s RNA sequence. They started by creating a database of RNA extracted from chimps infected with HCV. But how would the scientists find what RNA belonged to the chimp, and what belonged to the virus? To do this, they inserted small pieces of the RNA into bacteria. If the piece of RNA inserted into the bacteria belonged to Hepatitis C, the bacteria would express the same antigens (markers the immune system can use to identify pathogens) that a Hepatitis C virus expresses. They exposed this bacteria to the blood of a human with HCV, which contained antibodies (proteins that would latch onto the antigens) against Hepatitis C. One colony of bacteria reacted to the antibodies, proving that it had the RNA of Hepatitis C. The mystery virus had finally been discovered.
Work done at Washington University, by Charles Rice, further proved that this virus was the cause of Hepatitis C. He also discovered key processes behind replication of the virus, including the RNA polymerase (a type of enzyme that replicated RNA) Hepatitis C uses.
This discovery became crucial in developing a cure for HCV, a drug called sofosbuvir. This drug blocks the RNA polymerase of Hepatitis C, preventing it from replicating. Sofosbuvir has a 90% - 96% success rate, making what was once a largely incurable disease highly treatable, thanks to the fundamental discoveries funded by the US government.
- States: WA , CA
- Organizations: Chiron Corporation , Washington University
- Topics: Biology , Chemistry , Health
- Federal Grants: NIAID 5R01AI028731-05 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-06 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-07 , NIAID 2R01AI028731-08 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-09 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-10 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-11 , NIAID 5R01AI028731-12 , NIAID 1R01AI041980-01 , NIAID 5R01AI041980-02 , NIAID 5R01AI041980-03 , NIAID 2R37AI041980-04 , NIAID 5R37AI041980-05 , NIAID 5R37AI041980-06 , NIAID 3R37AI041980-05S1 , NIAID R37AI041980-07 , NIAID 3R37AI041980-08S1 , NIAID 5R37AI041980-08 , NIAID 4R37AI041980-09 , NIAID 5R37AI041980-10
- Links and further reading: [ link1 | link2 | link3 | link4 | link5 | link6 ]