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The development of a hepatitis C vaccine has been challenging due to the virus’s many genotypes, frequent mutations, and lack of a suitable host for study. Hepatitis C can cause chronic liver disease and affects up to 170 million people worldwide. Several potential vaccines are in clinical trials.
Researchers have not yet been able to develop a hepatitis C vaccination, although many believe the need for such vaccination is clear. A hepatitis C vaccination could be instrumental in preventing hepatitis C infection, which can cause chronic liver disease that often requires a liver transplant. Acute hepatitis C infection is difficult to treat and can cause irreversible liver damage. Creating a vaccine is tricky because there are many rapidly mutating strains of this disease, and scientists have yet to find a host in which they can effectively study the virus.
Hepatitis C is a viral disease that can cause inflammation of the liver. When hepatitis C is acute, it usually lasts only days or weeks. Chronic hepatitis C usually causes symptoms that last for at least six months. It can cause liver cancer and cirrhosis. Many patients with chronic hepatitis C eventually require a liver transplant. Hepatitis C is usually spread through contact with the blood or sexual fluids of an infected person.
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 170 million people worldwide have hepatitis C. About half of these people could eventually develop cirrhosis, liver cancer or liver failure. The search for a hepatitis C vaccination has been a long one for a variety of reasons.
The virus that causes hepatitis C, HCV, is thought to have six or more different genotypes. This means that there could be more than six different genetic variants of the same virus. Researchers have not yet been able to develop a vaccine that works against all of the different genotypes of HCV. The HCV virus also tends to mutate frequently, making the development of a hepatitis C vaccine even more difficult.
A third obstacle on the path to effective hepatitis C vaccination is the current absence of a suitable host in which researchers can study the virus that causes hepatitis C. Researchers most often develop viral vaccinations by studying the cycle of viral life, including how the virus operates within its host. The researchers have yet to identify a host cell culture, or animal, that may be infected for the study. Recreating the virus’s natural habitat by infecting human liver cells under laboratory conditions has proven to be cost-prohibitive.
Researchers, however, continue to work on hepatitis C vaccination. Several potentially useful hepatitis C vaccinations are currently in clinical trials.
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