Hepatitis C and Statins: A Future Therapeutic Avenue?

Combating Hepatitis C (HCV): A Review of Present & Future Perspectives

Abstract: Over the past few decades, the race against the treatment strategies of infectious HCV has gained a lot of momentum. These treatments include several therapies like Ribavirin, INF-α, DAA based pro-drugs, vaccines, and even naturally occurring compounds like herbal extracts as well as scorpion venom. All of these drugs have their specialized techniques and methodologies of administrati...

Existing and future therapeutic options for hepatitis C virus infection.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure worldwide. Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is treated with interferon-a (IFN-alpha), pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG-IFNalpha) alone or in combination with ribavirin; however, a significant fraction of patients either fail to respond or relapse after cessation ...

Statins downregulate K6a promoter activity: a possible therapeutic avenue for pachyonychia congenita.

Pachyonychia congenita (PC) is a keratinizing disorder predominantly caused by mutations in keratin 6a (K6a) (∼50% of cases) or K6b, K16, or K17. One means of treating PC is identification of small-molecule inhibitors of PC-related keratins. Here, we cloned the human K6a promoter, and using a cell-based reporter gene assay, a chemical library was screened for K6a inhibitors. One compound, compa...

Statins in the Treatment of Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important health issue because it affects about 3% of the world population. It is estimated that 65–80% of HCV infections progress to chronic disease, and more than 20–50% of patients with chronic hepatitis develop hepatic cirrhosis. Hepatocel-lular carcinoma complicates 5% of the chronic hepatitis C cases (1, 2). Combination therapy with peginterferon– r...

statins in the treatment of hepatitis c