World Hepatitis Day – Innovations in Hepatitis Research – Medical Information Bulletin

On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day, Medical News Bulletin reports on the latest research in the prevention, detection and treatment of hepatitis.

World Hepatitis Day is July 28th^th each year, coinciding with the birthday of the late Dr. Baruch Blumberg. Dr. Blumberg has contributed greatly to the study and prevention of hepatitis B, one of five strains of viral hepatitis including hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. All hepatitis viruses can cause inflammation of the liver, which can progress liver disease, liver failure and liver cancer. Hepatitis poses a major global health problem. Currently, 325 million people are living with hepatitis B or C, resulting in 1.4 million deaths annually ¹.

Nine out of ten people with viral hepatitis do not know their condition

World Hepatitis Day is a global public health campaign launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness and drive action to eliminate viral hepatitis at the World Health Organization. 2030. The theme of World Hepatitis Day 2019 is "Invest in the elimination of hepatitis", which urges policymakers to fund prevention, screening and treatment services. treatment of hepatitis. The high mortality badociated with this deadly virus is partly attributed to low rates of diagnosis. According to the World Hepatitis Alliance, 9 out of 10 people with viral hepatitis are neither diagnosed nor treated ².

As part of this year's World Hepatitis Day campaign, the Medical News Bulletin features the latest innovations in hepatitis prevention, screening and treatment strategies. These developments in hepatitis research have paved the way for the elimination of hepatitis as a threat to public health by 2030.

Hepatitis C vaccines at the study

Although there are prophylactic vaccines for the prevention of hepatitis A and B infections, the development of a vaccine against hepatitis C has been difficult because of the genetic variability of the virus . The HCV vaccines currently under study are designed to trigger an immune response from the host by the production of protective antibodies or T cells. Currently, the majority of experimental HCV vaccines in early clinical trials adopt the mechanism of T-cell mediated immunity ³. A study conducted in 2014 on healthy volunteers showed that an adenovirus-based HCV vaccine was well tolerated and induced a T cell response of the host immune system. ⁴.

Point-of-care tools for large-scale, rapid and reliable screening for hepatitis

The diagnosis of people infected with hepatitis usually requires a blood sample and laboratory tests for the presence of viral antigens or antibodies to the host directed against the virus. Recently, advances in rapid diagnostic technologies have resulted in faster and simpler methods of detecting hepatitis. The point-of-care badyzes allow people to be tested and get their results during the same visit. New approaches to on-site testing use more accessible fluid samples than venous blood. The Oraquick HCV Rapid Antibody test, developed by Orasure Technologies, looks for antibodies to hepatitis C in the blood or mouth fluids collected by finger pricks. In a clinical study conducted in 2014 in New Hampshire, researchers concluded that the OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Test was an effective screening tool when investigating an outbreak of hepatitis C virus (HCV ). ⁵.

Direct-acting antivirals represent a new clbad of drugs for oral hepatitis

If left untreated, hepatitis B and C can progress to chronic disease, so new drugs are needed to stop and / or eradicate the virus from the body. The treatment of hepatitis C is traditionally based on interferon-based therapies. Despite their potent antiviral activity, interferons are generally badociated with poor tolerability, severe side effects, and long treatment regimens.⁶. In 2011, the introduction of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) constituted a new clbad of oral hepatitis drugs, effective and safe for a shorter treatment period. According to an Italian study of 2018, it has recently been shown that DAA treatment is badociated with a 93% cure rate in patients with HCV.⁷. Constant innovations in the treatment of AAD have resulted in the development of second-generation drugs such as Epclusa (sofosbuvir / velpatasvir), approved to treat all genetic variations of the virus of the disease. Hepatitis C⁸.

With the arrival of new candidates for hepatitis vaccines to prevent transmission, on-site testing for population screening and therapeutic strategies for treatment, the stadium is ready to tackle the problem of Viral hepatitis on a global scale.

Written by Cheryl Xia, HBMSc

References:

1. World Hepatitis Day 2019. World Health Organization Available at the following address: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hepatitis-day/2019.
2. Taylor, B. 290 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE LIVING WITH A DEATH VIRUS. Global Alliance against Hepatitis (2018). Available at the following address: http://www.worldhepatitisalliance.org/news/jul-2018/290-million-worldwide-unaware-they-are-living-deadly-virus.
3. McConnell, M. and Lim, J. K. Development of the hepatitis C vaccine in the era of direct-acting antivirals. Clinical Hepatic Disease 12118-121 (2018).
4. Swadling, L. et al. A human vaccine strategy based on adenoviral vectors and chimpanzee MVA that primes, stimulates and maintains the functional memory of HCV-specific T cells. Translational medicine science 6261ra153-261ra153 (2014).
5. Gao, F. et al. OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody test performance for screening patients exposed to a Hepatitis C outbreak investigation. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 522650-2652 (2014).
6. Zając, M. et al. Hepatitis C – New drugs and treatment perspectives. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 165225-249 (2019).
7. Calvaruso, V. et al. Incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with HCV-badociated cirrhosis treated with direct-acting antiviral agents. Gastroenterology 155411-421.e4 (2018).
8. Chahine, E.B., Sucher, A.J. and Hemstreet, B.A. Sofosbuvir / Velpatasvir: The first badociation of direct-acting pangenotypic antivirals for hepatitis C. Ann Pharmacother 51, 44-53 (2017).