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Web Posted: 10/29/2008 6:55 CDT
Scientists closer to Hepatitis C cure

For years scientists have said that a cure for Hepatitis C was on the horizon.
Now, the horizon is coming into sharp focus, and San Antonio scientists have
their sights set on it.
Virologist Dr. Robert Lanford at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical
Research is a man on a mission. His molecular biology lab is helping test some
promising new anti-viral drugs. The blood being studied behind the closed doors
is from animals — chimpanzees that have been infected with the Hepatitis C virus
to test new compounds.
"Chimpanzees are the only animal other than human beings that can be infected
with HCV, so even today that's the only animal model that we can tell whether a
drug can really work," Dr. Lanford said.
Of the 160 chimpanzees that live in the enclosures on San Antonio's Northwest
Side, more than 30 are Hepatitis C models. By giving them the experimental drug
and monitoring them, scientists can find out answers to important questions,
like how potent a drug is and how quickly it reduces the level of virus in the
blood.
Hepatitis C is the No. 1 cause of liver transplants in the United States. The
virus causes swelling and cysts to develop. Eventually, scar tissue forms, then
gradually cirrhosis of hardening of the liver, tumors form and eventually the
liver fails.
That's the reason why finding a combination of drugs to stop the virus in its
tracks is so crucial.
"The viruses are like little factories. And we have to find certain parts of the
machinery that's essential to the factory and attack that machinery. And that's
what these drugs do," Dr. Lanford said.
The Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research is testing half a dozen
hepatitis C anti-virals now.
Dr. Lanford said he's confident an effective cocktail of drugs will be on the
market in five to 10 years.

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