Acta Univ Latv (2007) 723: 123–143

Is vaccine against HCV possible?

Abstract

Natural immunity against the hepatitis C virus (HCV) was discovered not long ago. Some infected individuals are able to clear the virus, while other patients need intensive antiviral drug treatment that is expensive and not always effective. For this reason, many efforts are directed towards development of an effective vaccine in order to improve treatment outcome by stimulating humoral and cellular immune responses against HCV proteins or their immunodominant epitopes. Several HCV vaccine candidates have been tested in chimpanzees and promising results have allowed optimism about the development of at least partially effective vaccine against highly heterogeneous HCV pathogen. Hepatitis B virus core particles can be used successfully as a carrier of HCV epitopes. Chimeric HBc/HCV virus-like particles represent an interesting and valuable tool in the development of HCV vaccine.