Prospects for hepatitis C vaccine
Bhopale, G.M.; Nanda, R.K.
Acta Virologica 48(4): 215-221
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-723X PMID: 15745044 Document Number: 583579
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Unfortunately, neither a vaccine nor any effective therapy is available. Efforts are now directed towards the development of an effective vaccine besides chemotherapy. This review briefly summarizes the properties of an effective vaccine for the control of HCV infection. The mechanisms of protective immune response induced by HCV are not well understood. It is presumed that humoral and cellular immune responses play an important role. Even though there are various obstacles in the development of HCV vaccine, we describe a few promising approaches such as DNA vaccine, recombinant virus vaccine, HCV-like particles (HCV-LPs), peptide-based vaccine and plant-derived recombinant subunit vaccine.