Development of new animal model will enable researchers to test Hep C drugs
Development of new animal model will enable researchers to test Hep C
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Public release date: 31-Jul-2001
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A team of University of Alberta researchers has successfully created a
mouse model that scientists can now use to test antiviral therapies
against Hepatitis C, a contagious viral disease that usually leads to
serious, permanent liver damage. The disease afflicts about 175
million around the world.
"This is certainly a major advance in the fight against the disease,"
says Dr. David Mercer, the lead author of the scientific paper
published in this month's Nature Medicine journal. "We now have a
viable way of testing new {*filter*} which might ultimately help lead to
development of a cure."
"The development of effective therapeutic strategies has been
significantly hampered for more than a decade by difficulties in
establishing in vitro and in vivo models of viral replication," says
principal investigator Dr. Norman Kneteman, a professor of surgery at
the U of A. "We've solved that problem."
Essentially, the researchers have transplanted human liver cells into
a genetically-modified mouse; the transplanted cells then begin
rapidly dividing and fill up much of the mouse liver. These "chimeric"
mice can be infected with the hepatitis C virus, whereas previously
only humans and chimpanzees have been susceptible to hepatitis C.
"Not only does the new mouse model give researchers the ability to
test new therapies," says co-principal investigator Dr. Lorne Tyrrell,
"it also allows researchers to study questions hitherto impossible to
study, such as how the virus infects healthy cells and how the virus
replicates."
"This advance opens the floodgates on basic and applied research,"
says Dr. Tyrrell, whose previous work on the hepatitis B virus led to
the development of a revolutionary new drug proven to be an effective
treatment for Hepatitis B.
Hepatitis C affects an estimated 175 million people worldwide,
including approximately 3 million Americans and 300,000 Canadians.
Infection leads to chronic liver disease in 70 to 80 percent of
patients, with 30 percent developing cirrhosis, and five to ten
percent cancer of the liver.
Liver failure secondary to long-term hepatitis C infection is the
number one reason for liver transplantation in North America. There is
no vaccination against hepatitis C, and current treatment using
combinations of interferon and ribavirin works only in a selected
number of patients.
The researchers will be presenting their work at the 8th International
Symposium on Hepatitis C and Related Viruses next month in Paris.
Arising from this discovery, and in keeping with the vision and
strategy of both the University of Alberta and the Alberta government,
the investigators have founded a biotechnology spin-off company,
KMTHepatech Inc., with the goal of actively working towards a cure for
Hepatitis C.
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Other University of Alberta researchers involved in the work include:
Daniel Schiller, John Elliott, Donna Douglas, Chunhai Hao, William
Addison, Karl Fisher, Thomas Churchill, and Jonathan Lakey. Aline
Rinfret of the Centre de Recherche du CHUM, H?pital Saint-Luc,
Montral, Qubec, was also a co-author of the paper.
Five of the authors were supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation
for Medical Research (AHFMR) and the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research (CIHR). The Edmonton Civic Employees Charitable Assistance
Fund in the Department of Surgery provided initial seed money for the
research. Drs. Kneteman and Tyrrell are members of a new national
centre of excellence for vaccine development (CANVAC).
Also see:
Hepatitis C researchers make breakthrough
By Michael Robb
http://www.***.com/
