Advances in hepatitis C virus vaccines, Part one: Advances in basic knowledge for hepatitis C virus vaccine design.
BACKGROUND
Around 3% of the world population is infected with HCV, with 3 - 4 million newly infected subjects added to this reservoir every year. At least 10% of these people will develop liver cirrhosis or cancer over time, while no approved vaccine against HCV infection is available to date.


METHODS
This paper includes a detailed and correlated patent (selected by HCAPLUS search database) and literature (searched by PubMed) review on the HCV genome, proteins and key epitopes (including underestimated HCV proteins, alternate reading frame proteins), HCV immunology, immunosuppressive mechanisms and protective correlations of immunity in acute and chronic states of infection (features for prophylactic and therapeutic HCV vaccine design), recent HCV cell culture systems (HCV/JFH1) and animal models. In part two of this review, advances in HCV vaccine formulations and modalities as well as a detailed list of the current trials for HCV vaccine and discussion of the pros and cones of different strategies will be provided.


CONCLUSIONS
By using the advanced basic knowledge and tools obtained about HCV vaccinology in recent years and the application of novel formulations and modalities, at least partially effective vaccines will become available in the near future to prevent (or treat) the chronic (if not the acute) state of HCV infection. A few of such vaccines are already in clinical trials.
Pasteur Institute of Iran, Hepatitis & AIDS Department, Pasteur Ave., Tehran, Iran. farzin.roohvand@pasteur.fr
Farzin
F
Roohvand
Niloufar
N
Kossari
D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D015195:Drug Design; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D023421:Models, Animal; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*
D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines