Evaluation of protective, disease-associated and therapeutic immunity to hepatitis C virus infection

Project

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a significant health problem in the developing world. The World Health Organization estimates that 3 per cent of the world's population is infected with HCV and 170 million people are chronic carriers. For reasons that are unclear, while a few indivuduals can clear HCV infections, most develop chronic hepatitis, and some go on to develop cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

An existing Egyptian-US collaboration has been investigating HCV in two large rural Egyptian cohorts, to gain a better understanding of the spread and persistence of the virus. This award will add immunologists from Egypt and Scotland to the study, to help evaluate:

• protective immunity, by comparing HCV-specific immune responses in subjects who have cleared infections and those who have not
• disease-associated immunity, by comparing immune responses in infected subjects who develop cirrhosis with those who do not
• therapeutic immunity, by comparing immune responses in infected subjects who clear virus after antiviral treatment and those who do not
• genetic factors, by correlating immunological findings with HLA and virus genotypes.

These studies will provide valuable information on the pathogenesis of HCV liver disease, and inform the development of vaccines that prevent, cure or interrupt HCV infection.

Applicants

Professor G T Strickland
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, International Health Program, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA

Dr P Hagan
Department of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK

Professor M Al-Sherbiny
Faculty of Science, Univesity of Cairo, 3 Abdel-Badei Mohamed Salem, F-9 Dokki, Giza, Cairo, Egypt

Professor M Abdel-Hamid
Minia University School of Medicine and Hepatitis C Prevention-Egypt Project, Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt

Professor A Fix
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, International Health Program, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA