<p>Groundbreaking research by Florida State University biologists could save countless lives by hastening the development of anti-viral therapies for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) -- an insidious human pathogen that causes acute and chronic liver diseases and currently infects more than 170 million people worldwide.</p>
<p>The landmark study by FSU Assistant Professor Hengli Tang and doctoral student Heather B. Nelson is reminiscent of Nobel-Prize-winning 1950s virus research that laid the groundwork for eventual development of a live polio vaccine. What's more, their work with HCV could fast-forward the advent of better treatments for related viruses such as West Nile and influenza.</p>
<p>Tang and Nelson set out to find and remove a roadblock that has baffled the scientific community for decades: HCV refuses to reproduce in test tubes for more than a few hours or days. That failure to replicate sufficiently in vitro -- contrary to its behavior in the human liver -- has denied scientists the efficient virus production and infection system essential to experimental research.</p>
<p>Findings from the FSU study seem certain to change all that.</p>
<p>The FSU researchers have identified the specific molecular mechanism that inhibits HCV replication in vitro when host cells become crowded and stop dividing. Their discovery of the molecular mischief that has long plagued scientists should prove critical to research on HCV's complex virus-host cell interactions and lead to targeted treatments.</p>
<p>"Targeting is critical," Tang said. "While existing nucleotide starvation therapies, which are used primarily to treat cancer, already can inhibit replication by depriving viral agents of their molecular building blocks, they also can negatively impact healthy cells and cause undesired side effects."</p>
<p>Behind the FSU findings is a brand-new test that Tang and Nelson designed. With its innovative technology, their novel assay -- for which the university has filed a provisional patent application -- tracks and monitors the progress of HCV replication in the laboratory much more quickly and easily than ever before.</p>
<p>Finally, after Tang and Nelson developed their rapid assay and uncovered the reason behind suppression of the virus in cell culture, they then crafted a remedy that works right in the test tube.</p>
<p>FSU Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph Travis sees parallels to Nobel Prize-winning 1950s research in the Tang-Nelson study.</p>
<p>"Our biologists have figured out how to grow the HCV virus in vitro. No one has ever done this before," he said. "Their remarkable achievement reminds us of an early-'50s breakthrough by scientists elsewhere, who learned to grow viruses in the laboratory for the very first time. From there, others were able to grow the polio virus in culture, which led in turn to the development of the live polio vaccine. </p>
<p>For more, see:
<a href="http://www.fsu.edu/rd2005/indexTOFStory.html?lead.hcv%5B/url%5D">http://www.fsu.edu/rd2005/indexTOFStory.html?lead.hcv</a></p>