IISc develops Hepatitis C vaccine

A research team at the Indian Institute of Science at Bengaluru has developed a Hepatitis C vaccine. A report in a leading daily states that Professor Saumitra Das and his team from IISc have developed a vaccine for HCV genotype 3a. Their research was funded by the Indo-Australian Biotechnology Fund (IABF), department of biotechnology, Government of India.

According to the daily, the scientists at IISc have developed a vaccine that is customised for the Indian population. It has apparently shown promising results in pre-clinical studies. Numerous pre-clinical trials of virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine strategies are in progress around the world. But in the IISc study, the scientists have generated gt3a Hepatitis C virus-like particles (HCV-LP). The researchers are quoted as saying that they have created a "molecular cocktail of virus-like particles that mimics HCV along with a bio-engineered adenovirus vector (viral vectors are tools commonly used by molecular biologists to deliver genetic material into cells), encoding the core and envelope proteins of HCV". The researchers then inserted the genes of HCV into the adenovirus vector so that it would provoke the immune system to produce neutralising antibodies against the hepatitis C virus, states the report. The combination of VLP with HCV protein boost has shown positive results.

Dr Das was quoted as saying, "Our results suggest that the combined regimen of HCV-LP followed by the HCV core and envelope protein boost could be a more effective strategy of HCV vaccination."  They will now need to test it in higher animals. The daily reports that the scientists are proposing a two-step vaccination approach against HCV.