[New approaches to immune against hepatitis C virus]

Hepatitis C virus represents a global health problem as some 170 million individuals are infected worldwide. Studies on virus replication and pathogenesis are hampered by the lack of a reliable cell culture system. In addition, the high rate of mutations reflected in viral antigen variability complicates attempts to prepare an efficient vaccine against HCV. Recently some significant strides were made towards resolving some of the above-mentioned difficulties. The importance of several structural antigens i.e. HVR1 and CD81 was demonstrated with regard to the infection mechanism and as structures that may serve to immunize against the virus. A promising new approach of using recombinant DNA vaccines instead of protein vaccines is discussed.