Curcumin against hepatitis C virus infection: spicing up antiviral therapies with 'nutraceuticals'?

Infection with the HCV is one of the major causes of chronic liver disease with an estimated 184 million persons worldwide positive for HCV antibodies1 and 3–4 million newly infected each year. The situation is worrying in emerging countries of Central and Southeast Asia, North Africa and Middle East with seroprevalence around 3%–5%. Central Africa and Egypt remain regions of very high endemicity with a 25% prevalence in the latter. Hepatitis C is therefore a global health problem with striking inequalities in the access to healthcare and implementation of treatments between world regions. HCV is an enveloped RNA virus classified into seven genotypes, and virions are found associated to β-lipoproteins in the serum of patients.2 A generally asymptomatic initial infection phase is followed by signs of liver injury after 20–30 years, and patients develop cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma in severe cases for which liver transplantation...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research