Current and future prophylactic vaccines for hepatitis C virus

Abstract:

The development of a vaccine is necessary to combat the global hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic. The key to the development of a prophylactic vaccine is understanding the immune response in those who spontaneously resolve HCV infections versus those who develop chronic disease. Several promising vaccine candidates based on the use of viral vectors are currently in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. The recently solved structures of the E2 glycoprotein have greatly aided epitope- and antibody-based vaccine design.

Keywords::

• antibody
• E1E2 glycoproteins
• epitope
• HCV
• neutralizing antibody
• viral vector

Acknowledgments

The work in the authors’ laboratory is funded by the Medical Research Council, UK.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.