AR-News: Hep C Experiments on Chimps in TX

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From:  Primfocus 
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 12:18 AM
Subject: primfocus: Hep C Experiments on Chimps in TX


Breakthrough in Efforts to Create a Hepatitis C Vaccine
LAST UPDATE: 2/10/2004 2:55:12 PM
Posted By: Jim Forsyth 
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=CD347638-A299-4BB7-A108-E857C4DFB831

(SAN ANTONIO) -- Researchers in Texas said Monday a breakthrough has sparked hope that a vaccine can be found to prevent hepatitis C, one of the most stubborn and intractable diseases in the world. 

A team headed by Dr. Robert E. Lanford of San Antonio’s Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research has found that chimpanzees infected with hepatitis C develop immunity to all strains of the disease, not just the specific infection strain. Their research will be published this week in the Journal of Virology. 

“There’s been a lot of skepticism about our ability to do this because hepatitis C has a great deal of divergence,” Lanford told 1200 WOAI news. “We’re run into this before with HIV, we’ve had trouble making a vaccine for HIV because of the divergence. People felt the same way with Hepatitis C, and our work now indicates that this won’t be a problem. An animal that has developed immunity to one strain of hepatitis C should be immune to all the other strains.” 

Lanford said the goal is to develop a vaccine that could be administered at birth to prevent the development of hepatitis C through a lifetime. 

“We vaccinate for hepatitis B at birth now. We could raise a population of people who won’t have to deal with this in future years.” 

Hepatitis C is a blood disease which in the past had been acquired through blood transfusions of the use of blood clotting agents. Currently the most common source of hepatitis C infection is intravenous drug use. 

Hepatitis C, known as the 'silent epidemic,' is the number one cause of liver failure and the leading cause of liver transplantation in the US. An estimated one in 25 adults in the country between the ages of 40 and 60 are infected with hepatitis C, which accounts for one quarter of all cases of liver cancer. 

“A vaccine on the market is still a long ways off,” Lanford said. “What we have done with this research is prove that a vaccination is possible.” 


Crystal Miller-Spiegel
Senior Policy Analyst
American Anti-Vivisection Society
801 Old York Road, #204
Jenkintown, PA  19046
phone 215.887.0816
fax 215.887.2088
email: cspiegel at aavs.org
web: www.aavs.org and www.banpoundseizure.org
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