Hepatitis C ; The long road to a blockbuster

In case you missed it over at Nature is an article discussing - the long road to a blockbuster.

The hope is to eventually use several drugs in combination, avoiding the need for interferon-alpha while staving off drug resistance. Houghton estimates, based on mathematical models and clinical studies, that it will take a cocktail of three targeted therapies to prevent drug resistance.

Another approach is to stop HCV spreading inside patients by targeting its ability to enter cells. "To contain the virus in a subset of cells rather than allowing it to spread would be a huge boost for containing liver damage," says Michael Gale, a virologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In a study published in Nature Medicine on 24 April, a team led by virologist Thomas Baumert of the University of Strasbourg, France, reports that HCV relies on a cellular receptor protein, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), to enter human cells². EGFR inhibitors are already on the market as cancer therapies and Baumert's team plans to begin clinical trials of the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib in HCV patients by the end of the year.

Another drug that blocks entry, ITX-5061, is being developed by iTherX, a pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California, and is in phase 2 clinical trials.

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