Up to 215,000 people in the UK carry hepatitis C, but only half know it. The virus silently damages the liver for years, eventually causing cancer or organ failure in some patients. New drugs can cure the infection, but they are expensive and some people develop resistance to them. This research programme tracks how the hepatitis C virus mutates inside infected individuals, aiming to understand exactly which genetic changes allow the virus to shrug off treatment. The team also studies antibodies that the human immune system naturally produces during infection. By identifying which of these antibodies neutralise the virus most effectively, they hope to design a vaccine that prevents infection altogether. A vaccine would be especially critical for low-income countries where the costly cure drugs are out of reach. If successful, this work could shift hepatitis C from a chronic, often hidden disease requiring expensive treatment to one that is preventable in the first place. The research is a mix of fundamental virology—understanding how the virus evolves—and applied vaccine development, with no guarantee of a finished product but a clear path toward one.
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HCV vaccine Dr John McLauchlan and Dr Arvind Patel, Lead Investigators, and Dr Emma Thomson as a Co-Investigator, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), University of Glasgow. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is passed on through blood-to-blood contact and infects the liver. In most cases, after initial infection, it remains in the blood and the liver unless those who are infected receive treatment to clear the virus. Over a long period, up to 10-20 years after infection, liver disease can develop which may lead to liver failure or cancer. Since infection is not always obvious, people are frequently unaware that they carry the virus. As a result, HCV infection is a global clinical problem; in the UK, there are up to 215,000 infected people but only about half of them have been diagnosed. Our programme aims to understand how HCV changes in people who are infected. This is important because some people can develop resistance to the drugs used to treat the virus. Currently, there are new but expensive drugs available to cure infection. However, not everyone responds because they become resistant. We are trying to understand what changes occur in the virus to make people resistant and why these changes happen. In addition, we believe that eradicating HCV needs a vaccine, especially for poor countries that cannot afford drugs. Therefore, we are also looking at the antibodies which are naturally produced during infection to make a vaccine that would protect people from the virus.
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