A Hepatitis C virus-host interaction involved in viral replication: toward the identification of antiviral targets

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of chronic liver disease. The current standard therapy for hepatitis C patients, which is based on a combination of pegylated interferons and ribavirin, results in viral clearance in about 50% of the treated individuals. Clinical trials of a variety of specific anti-HCV drugs, including several which target virus-encoded enzymes, are on-going, and some of these studies have reported impressive reductions of HCV levels in patients. However, the development of antivirals with diverse mechanisms of action is still required to eliminate this life-threatening virus. Besides specific viral proteins, targeting host cellular factors that are key to efficient viral replication could lead to the development of novel treatment strategies. Therapies against host factors are generally considered to present a low risk of generating drug-resistant viruses. The current understanding of anti-HCV drugs in clinical development and of virus-host interactions implicated in the regulation of HCV replication is summarized.