HCV infection: an enigma, recent advances and new paradigms for its treatment

Abstract

HCV infection is a serious human liver health problem and has infected 200 million people worldwide. Persistent HCV infection can lead to chronic hepatitis C, which is a significant risk of serious hepatic diseases such as hepatic steatosis, hepatic fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The current standard-of-care options to treat HCV infection are limited, expensive and produce side effects in infected patients that often cause termination of the therapy. Recently, the approval of direct-acting antivirals represents a major breakthrough for the improvement of treatment strategies against chronic HCV infection. Similarly, the development of more effective, safe and well-tolerated interferon therapy is opening a new era in HCV therapeutics. Moreover, a new vaccine technology has been tested in mice for its therapeutic efficacy against the most conserved regions of the HCV genome. This review article will focus on the recent advances in HCV therapeutics and discuss new paradigms to develop the most convenient drugs and treatment strategies.