title: Therapy of Chronic Hepatitis C in the Era of Nanotechnology: Drug Delivery Systems and Liver Targeting.
abstract: Since the British scientist Michael Houghton along with George Kuo, Qui-Lim Choo (Chiron Corporation Emeryville), and Daniel W. Bradley (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) codiscovered the causative agent of hepatitis C in 1989, so much progress has been made for the screening of blood donors and management of this chronic liver disease. In this regard, direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have emerged as the potential "cure" of this slowly progressing and devastating disease. However, improvements are still clearly required since the anti-hepatitis C drugs currently available in the market are so extremely expensive (i.e. $94,500 for a 12-week course of treatment), that many patients will have a denied access to such drugs by their insurers. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; In the last few years, nanotechnology has emerged as a new platform for drug development, contributing significantly to the improvement of the administration and delivery of many drugs. Additionally, nanotechnologies can provide unique solutions even in poorer societies. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; This manuscript reviews the current knowledges on the available anti-hepatitis C drugs and the new drug candidates being investigated as well, and introduces the recent advances in nanocarrier-based delivery systems. Finally, the challenges in the development of drug delivery systems for the targeting of antiviral drugs to the liver are also discussed.
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Medical Parasitology, University of Buenos Aires-National Science Research Council (IMPaM, UBA-CONICET), Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires,. Argentina.
authors: Maria Lujan
authors: ML
authors: Cuestas
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D050997:Nanomedicine
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers