Vaccine prospects against hepatitis C.

The hepatitis C virus induces chronic liver diseases leading to cirrhosis and cancer. New antiviral drugs are now available to eliminate efficiently the infection with this virus. However, these drugs are very expensive, and many subjects are unaware of their infection status until the disease breaks out. At this stage these molecules are less effective, as the elimination of the virus is not always correlated to a restoration offull liver functions. Thus, it remains very important to develop a vaccine against hepatitis C, especially as the World Health Organization estimates that nearly 4 million new infections occur each year worldwide. In contrast, there is a very effective vaccine against hepatitis B virus, which has reduced the global incidence of liver cancer induced by this virus. This recently led to the developement of a bivalent vaccine candidate that resembles in many ways the hepatitis B vaccine, but could have also the advantage of protecting against the hepatitis C virus. This vaccine induces a response equivalent to that induced by a commercial hepatitis B vaccine, reinforcing the idea that it can potentially be a substitute for currently marketed hepatitis B vaccines. In addition, this vaccine would have the advantage of being produced according to the same procedures establishedfor the hepatitis B vaccine, reducing the time and cost of its industrial development. Ultimately, this vaccine could significantly strengthen prevention against liver diseases induced by viruses.