Nanobots Cure Hepatitus C!

[JimBowie1958]

Engineered Nanobots Demonstrated to Eliminate Hepatitis C Virus

Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville created a tiny machine that has a gold nanoparticle backbone. On the surface of the gold are two biological agents. One element is a DNA antisense fragment that binds the target viral RNA, and thereby brings the nanobot close to the site of action. The other agent is a sequence nonspecific endoribonuclease, which cleaves and thus destroys the viral RNA fragment in the bot’s grasp.

When cultured cells infected with hepatitis C virus were exposed to the nanobots, the treatment led to almost a 100 percent decrease in hepatitis C virus levels. Furthermore when living mice were administered the nanobots, the same nearly 100% reduction in virus was observed. Furthermore the nanbots did not elicit an immune response in the mice.

“We can effectively stop hepatitis C infection if this technology can be further developed for clinical use,” said scientist Hongyan Liu, who is a member of The UF Shands Cancer Center.

Conceivably a pill form can be made.

Cool stuff!

Hepatitus C survivors have it rough.

 

[Mr. H.]

Thank you, Mr. Science.

 

[Moonglow]

I can finally have sex with Pamela Anderson.

 

[waltky]

Hepatitis C drugs effective but costly...

Effectiveness of Hepatitis C Drugs Praised; Cost a Concern
April 10, 2014 ~ Doctors who treat hepatitis C are hailing the development of drugs that can effectively eradicate the infection, which is a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer worldwide. At the same time, their focus now has turned to reducing the high cost of treatment so that it’s accessible to developing countries, where 80 percent of people are infected.

An estimated 150 to 185 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C and many don’t know it. That’s because the virus is largely silent until late symptoms appear, including grinding fatigue, joint pain, abdominal pain and jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes. But pivotal studies of new antiviral drugs conducted in developed countries show they knock out upwards of 90 percent of all hepatitis C infections, promising to revolutionize treatment in low- and middle income countries.

Channa Jayasekera is with the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Stanford University in California. Jayasekera spoke via Skype from the International Liver Congress meeting in London, where the new treatment options for hepatitis C are getting a lot of attention. “This is really a landmark achievement in all of medicine, I would say, because it’s one of the few times where we’ve been able to definitively eradicate a disease with a short course of oral therapy," said Jayasekera. Experts say the oral medications may even be more effective in the developing world because people there harbor different, possibly more responsive, types of the virus than in the West.

But a three-month course of the second generation antiviral drugs in the West costs between $85,000 and $90,000, according to Jayasekera. However, with the issuance of guidelines by the World Health Organization for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C with oral medications in low- and moderate income countries, there are moves to bring down the cost. Jayasekera says competition among the handful of pharmaceutical companies, and negotiations between manufacturers and governments as well as insurers, eventually will make treatment affordable.

The companies that produce the pills, according to Jayasekera, also are in the process of securing licenses for the manufacture of generic drugs for distribution in countries where they are most needed. “So, if a company that is selling these drugs feels that it is ethical and moral and in the spirit of corporate social responsibility appropriate to ensure that these drugs are also available to people outside of richer countries, then that prerogative is there," said Jayasekera. Jayasekera adds it will be necessary for each country to prioritize who gets treated first, in order to hold down costs and not overwhelm health care systems. Jayasekera made his observations in an article in New England Journal of Medicine.

Effectiveness of Hepatitis C Drugs Praised; Cost a Concern

See also:

WHO Issues Guidelines for Hepatitis C Treatment
April 09, 2014 — The World Health Organization is issuing its first-ever global guidelines on treating hepatitis C, a liver disease that kills between 350,000 and 500,000 people every year. WHO said the guidelines will reduce deaths from hepatitis C by helping countries improve treatment and care.

The World Health Organization said between 130 and 150 million people globally have chronic hepatitis C infection. The most affected regions are Central and East Asia and North Africa. The hepatitis C virus is mainly spread through exposure to contaminated blood. This can happen through unsafe health care practices involving the re-use of needles and syringes. A significant number of people who are chronically infected with hepatitis C will develop liver cirrhosis or liver cancer. WHO is publishing its guidelines as more effective and safer oral hepatitis medicines become more readily available on the market.

Stefan Wiktor, head of WHO’s Global Hepatitis Program, said hepatitis C can be treated and cured and, he said, treatments are getting better all the time. “Up until recently, to treat someone with Hepatitis C required approximately 48 weeks of weekly injections of a medicine called interferon, which was very toxic, very difficult to take. It really discouraged people from taking the medicine," he said. "Now, the newer treatments are much shorter-12 weeks. Some of them are treated without any injections at all and result in more than 90 percent cure rates.” Unfortunately, Dr. Wiktor said, most people in the world do not receive treatment for this illness. This is largely due to the lack of awareness of the problem and the lack of health care workers trained to recognize and deal with the disease. However, he noted, the biggest problem is that most people do not have any symptoms. Therefore, they do not know they may be at risk and should be tested. He said the infection too often remains undiagnosed until serious liver damage has developed.

Another major problem is hepatitis C treatment is unaffordable for most patients. Dr. Wiktor said the newer drugs can cost as much as $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment. He acknowledged price is a huge challenge to overcome. “To bridge that gap between the promise of these new medicines and sort of the reality of low coverage, we are issuing-WHO is developing its first-ever treatment guidelines. And, these guidelines, since they come with the WHO seal of approval and are strongly evidence-based, we feel it will be an important tool for decision makers in countries who are considering starting or scaling up Hepatitis treatment programs to give them the recommendations that they can use to help guide the development of that program," Wiktor said. "Similarly, they can help health care workers on how to manage patients.” The new guidelines provide recommendations on screening for hepatitis C infection, on medical care to slow the progress of the disease and on safe and effective treatments to cure chronic hepatitis C infection.

They also suggest measures that can be taken to prevent the transmission of the hepatitis C virus. These include instructions on safe medical procedures regarding injections in a health care setting and among people who inject drugs. WHO officials said they are sure the price of treatment will come down dramatically as more people use and benefit from the new drugs. They note that treatment for HIV/AIDS used to cost $10,000 when it was first introduced. They said the same and better drugs now cost $100.00. WHO said competition from generic HIV drug manufacturers, mainly in India, and the huge expansion of the market for these drugs has driven down prices, making it much cheaper for governments to scale up treatment. It said it expects a similar downward spiral in the price of hepatitis C drugs to occur.

WHO Issues Guidelines for Hepatitis C Treatment