51吃瓜

Reducing the prevalence of hepatitis C would represent a huge medical achievement, with the  reporting that an estimated 50 million people have a chronic hepatitis C infection globally, with approximately 1 million new infections occurring every year.

At the University of Bahrain, research being conducted by Muhammad Nauman Zahid, associate professor in the Department of Biology, is contributing to global understanding of the hepatitis C virus and the challenges in studying it.

“Hepatitis C remains a significant global health issue, and our work focuses on unravelling the ways the immune system combats the virus,” Zahid explains. “By studying the development and evolution of antibodies during infection, we aim to pinpoint the virus’s most vulnerable points.”

A challenge surrounding the hepatitis C virus is that, although chronically infected patients may produce antibodies, often these fail to neutralise the virus or become ineffective as the virus rapidly evolves. 

“Studying antibody responses to the hepatitis C virus presents several challenges, many of which are common to other viruses, like those seen with the recent Covid-19 pandemic,” Zahid says. “One of the biggest hurdles is the high genetic diversity of viruses. When viruses reproduce, they frequently introduce mutations, making it difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all vaccine.”

The challenge presented by a rapid viral evolution is not unique to hepatitis C. It’s why vaccines for other prominent infections, such as influenza, have to be modified annually. Hepatitis C’s genetic diversity is not the only challenge to creating a vaccine. The limited availability of suitable animal models for testing is another. Unlike some diseases that can be studied in guinea pigs or mice, research into the hepatitis C virus requires human or chimpanzee models or genetically modified animals, including humanised and transgenic mice. Acquiring these poses logistic and ethical issues.

The challenges surrounding the hepatitis C virus have not prevented Zahid’s research from achieving several notable breakthroughs. Zahid and his team have identified vulnerable parts of the virus, which is crucial for designing vaccines that elicit a robust immune response. There is hope that this could improve prevention and treatment options worldwide.

Given that the fight against hepatitis C is a global one, the work being conducted by Zahid and his team involves collaborating with partners around the world, including Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania in the US. 

“Our ongoing collaborative work continues to identify different viral regions that will be highly beneficial for vaccine development,” Zahid says. “We’ve also made interesting discoveries in acute infection cases, which are rare due to the typical lack of early symptoms in hepatitis C sufferers. Studying these individuals has provided critical insights into how some people naturally clear the virus, further informing our vaccine strategies.”

A deeper understanding of how antibodies work against the hepatitis C virus is paramount for designing more effective vaccines and treatments. Zahid’s research is making great progress here, but there’s more work to be done.

“The ultimate goal is to develop a vaccine that prepares the immune system to immediately target and neutralise the hepatitis C virus upon exposure,” Zahid says. “Just as vaccines have eradicated some diseases, like smallpox, and effectively controlled others, an effective hepatitis C vaccine is crucial for eliminating this disease globally.”