Products in Development

HCV Antiviral

VLST's Proteomics Platform Identifies Novel and Potentially Druggable Targets for HCV

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global public health problem as evidenced by ~170 million people worldwide infected with HCV. From CDC estimates, 5-20% of HCV-infected individuals will eventually develop cirrhosis and 1-5% will die from the consequences of chronic infection. Current standard treatment for HCV infection is a combination of pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin. This therapy is poorly tolerated by many patients and the cure rate is only ~40% for HCV genotype 1, the most common HCV genotype in the USA. Many investigational drugs are in development for HCV including several protease and polymerase inhibitors that show an anti-viral response. Acquired resistance to some protease and polymerase inhibitors likely reflects that the sequence of HCV can mutate rapidly.

VLST has applied its proteomics platform to identify host proteins that interact with HCV proteins, i.e., map the HCV viral protein-host protein interactome. Multiple novel and potentially druggable targets have been identified. Disruption of viral-host protein-protein interactions provides a strategy for the development of new classes of HCV drugs. Targeting host proteins rather than viral proteins directly may have lower risk for acquired resistance than direct targeting of viral proteins. Additionally, known interactions have been identified supporting the validity of our findings. This proteomics approach to mapping viral protein-host protein interactomes is likely broadly applicable to other viruses.