Prevention of liver cancer and cirrhosis by vaccines.
HBV and HCV infections are the most important causes of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and HCC. These occur in chronically infected individuals of whom there are more than 700 million worldwide. Prevention of chronic infection with these viruses by immunization is a high priority. Safe and effective HBV vaccines, both plasma-derived and recombinant DNA-derived are available, although not yet used universally because of cost. An HCV vaccine is not yet available and may be difficult to develop because of the high variability of the viral proteins. Nevertheless, research on such a vaccine remains a major goal. Therapeutic vaccines that induce a CTL response capable of killing infected cells offer an exciting approach to the treatment of chronic infections.
Prince
A M
AM
Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, USA.
D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014765:Viral Vaccines
D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014765:Viral Vaccines