Comparison of PEG Interferon Loaded and non-Loaded Iron Oxide Nanoparticles on Hepatitis C Virus Replication in Cell Culture System

Background and Aims: Iron oxide nanoparticles are among the most effective tools which can replace current medical techniques for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. Hepatitis C infection is one of the main health problems in the world, affecting around 3% of the world's population. This infection can develop into liver cirrhosis and liver cancer over the time in 80% of patients. In this study, the effects of PEG interferon loaded iron oxide nanoparticles on hepatitis C virus infection compared with unloaded nanoparticles was studied in vitro. Materials and Methods: First, Huh7.5 cells were cultured to replicate the hepatitis C virus. After loading the peg interferon alpha on iron oxide nanoparticles, their effects on the replication of hepatitis C virus was investigated by several methods. Results: The results of this study showed that iron oxide nanoparticles and peg interferon loaded iron oxide nanoparticles were able to reduce the load of hepatitis C virus in infected cell culture, but differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions: These data indicated that hepatitis C viral load was decreased in infected cells after induction of PEG interferon loaded iron oxide nanoparticles, but it needs more research to clarify in animal models or even to examine with other types of bare and drug-loaded nanoparticles in a similar way to our study.