title: Advances in drug development for hepatitis C.
abstract: Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global public health burden. It has been only several decades since this virus was first identified. In the meantime, a lot of progress has been made in the fight against HCV. Although the development of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and its combination with ribavirin (RBV) has significantly increased effectiveness of IFN-based treatment, candidate patients must be assessed for eligibility prior to the treatment due to side effects of the regimens and the rates of sustained virological response (SVR) were only around 50%. In 2011, the protease inhibitor (PI) Telaprevir was firstly approved as a direct-acting antiviral (DAA) for hepatitis C. The second generation of PIs was subsequently introduced and, by adding PI to Peg-IFN/RBV, the SVR rates were found to be raised to up to 80%. Further, with the recent approval of the NS5A inhibitors and the NS5B polymerase inhibitors and with the SVR rates reaching 90% or greater using IFN-free, DAA combination regimens, it is now expected that the majority of patients with chronic hepatitis C can be cured of infection in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chida
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000639:trends*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012254:Ribavirin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D009842:Oligopeptides; D012254:Ribavirin; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C084422:NS3 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases; C486464:telaprevir; C087036:NS-5 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase