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Challenges and successes in developing new therapies for hepatitis C

Nature volume 436, pages 953–960 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) will continue to be a serious global health threat for many years to come because of the chronic nature of the infection, its high prevalence and the significant morbidity of the resulting disease. Recently, a small number of molecules have produced encouraging results in proof-of-concept clinical trials. At the same time, preclinical evidence is accumulating that development of resistance will eventually limit the efficacy of new drugs. Thus, combinations of multiple agents will be required to treat chronic HCV infection.

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Figure 1: The structures of inhibitors BILN 2061 and VX-950 and of the NS3 serine protease domain (green) complexed with the central domain of NS4A (red).
Figure 2: Examples of inhibitors of the HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.
Figure 3: The crystal structure of the NS5B RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

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  1. Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare P. Angeletti, Via Pontina km 30.600, Pomezia-Rome, 00040, Italy

    Raffaele De Francesco & Giovanni Migliaccio

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  1. Raffaele De Francesco
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Correspondence to Raffaele De Francesco.

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G.M. and G.D.F are employees of IRBM P. Angeletti, a fully owned subsidiary of Merck and co.

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De Francesco, R., Migliaccio, G. Challenges and successes in developing new therapies for hepatitis C. Nature 436, 953–960 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04080

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