A team of scientists including the University of Utah, researchers found that the binding of a potent inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) for the virus’s genetic material causes a significant change in conformation that can adversely affect the ability of the virus to replicated. This discovery, published in the March 29 edition of the first acts of the National Academy of Sciences, offers a new potential target for the design of the structure on the basis of new treatments for hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is a major public health problem affecting 170 million people worldwide, with 2 to 3 million new cases diagnosed each year. In the U.S., HCV infection is the leading cause of liver cancer and liver transplantation, killing about 10,000 people each year. Currently, the most effective treatment for hepatitis C is an agent called pegylated interferon, which is often associated with an antiviral drug called ribavirin.

“The available therapies for hepatitis C have limited effectiveness, with less than 50 percent of an answer,” said Darrell R. Davis, Ph.D., lead author and professor and interim chair of medical chemistry and biochemistry professor at the University of Utah. “However, small molecules that inhibit viral replication have been reported and represent potential opportunities for new HCV treatments more effective.”

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More than half of kidneys from donors in the U.S. have contracted the hepatitis C are discarded, despite the need for patients with hepatitis C, which can cause death waiting for an organ safely, Johns Hopkins research suggests.

In a study of national data published online in the American Journal of Transplantation, the researchers say that if the results are slightly worse than patients with hepatitis C receive the bodies of hepatitis C, the benefits of transplantation over time can be greater than the risk of waiting – perhaps more than a year – for a kidney hepatitis C negative.

Patients with hepatitis C are positive, 12 percent of the population suffering from renal failure and patients have a higher risk of death in dialysis compared with those without the virus, indicating the study.

“Nationally, the kidneys from infected donors are well established, and refuse to patients in need,” said transplant surgeon Dorry L. Segev, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine and director the study. “Many of these kidney transplant does not use at all, in fact, the referral of patients with hepatitis C positive with an average of unnecessary wait another year for a healthy body.”

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