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University of Alberta
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Date Posted: Wed, August 01 2001, 17:47:46 PDT
Public release date: 31-Jul-2001
Contact: Michael Robb
michael.robb@ualberta.ca
780-492-0647
University of Alberta
Development of new animal model will enable researchers to test Hep C drugs
A team of University of Alberta researchers has successfully created a mouse
model that scientists can now use to test antiviral therapies against
Hepatitis C, a contagious viral disease that usually leads to serious,
permanent liver damage. The disease afflicts about 175 million around the
world.
"This is certainly a major advance in the fight against the disease," says
Dr. David Mercer, the lead author of the scientific paper published in this
month's Nature Medicine journal. "We now have a viable way of testing new
drugs which might ultimately help lead to development of a cure."
"The development of effective therapeutic strategies has been significantly
hampered for more than a decade by difficulties in establishing in vitro and
in vivo models of viral replication," says principal investigator Dr. Norman
Kneteman, a professor of surgery at the U of A. "We've solved that problem."
Essentially, the researchers have transplanted human liver cells into a
genetically-modified mouse; the transplanted cells then begin rapidly
dividing and fill up much of the mouse liver. These "chimeric" mice can be
infected with the hepatitis C virus, whereas previously only humans and
chimpanzees have been susceptible to hepatitis C.
"Not only does the new mouse model give researchers the ability to test new
therapies," says co-principal investigator Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, "it also
allows researchers to study questions hitherto impossible to study, such as
how the virus infects healthy cells and how the virus replicates."
"This advance opens the floodgates on basic and applied research," says Dr.
Tyrrell, whose previous work on the hepatitis B virus led to the development
of a revolutionary new drug proven to be an effective treatment for
Hepatitis B.
Hepatitis C affects an estimated 175 million people worldwide, including
approximately 3 million Americans and 300,000 Canadians. Infection leads to
chronic liver disease in 70 to 80 percent of patients, with 30 percent
developing cirrhosis, and five to ten percent cancer of the liver.
Liver failure secondary to long-term hepatitis C infection is the number one
reason for liver transplantation in North America. There is no vaccination
against hepatitis C, and current treatment using combinations of interferon
and ribavirin works only in a selected number of patients.
The researchers will be presenting their work at the 8th International
Symposium on Hepatitis C and Related Viruses next month in Paris. Arising
from this discovery, and in keeping with the vision and strategy of both the
University of Alberta and the Alberta government, the investigators have
founded a biotechnology spin-off company, KMTHepatech Inc., with the goal of
actively working towards a cure for Hepatitis C.
###
Other University of Alberta researchers involved in the work include: Daniel
Schiller, John Elliott, Donna Douglas, Chunhai Hao, William Addison, Karl
Fisher, Thomas Churchill, and Jonathan Lakey. Aline Rinfret of the Centre de
Recherche du CHUM, Hôpital Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, was also a co-author
of the paper.
Five of the authors were supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for
Medical Research (AHFMR) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR). The Edmonton Civic Employees Charitable Assistance Fund in the
Department of Surgery provided initial seed money for the research. Drs.
Kneteman and Tyrrell are members of a new national centre of excellence for
vaccine development (CANVAC).
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