Duncan Joshua D, Urbanowicz Richard A, Tarr Alexander W, Ball Jonathan K
School of Life Sciences, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
NIHR Nottingham BRC, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Vaccines (Basel). 2020 Feb 17;8(1):90. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8010090.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes both acute and chronic infection and continues to be a global problem despite advances in antiviral therapeutics. Current treatments fail to prevent reinfection and remain expensive, limiting their use to developed countries, and the asymptomatic nature of acute infection can result in individuals not receiving treatment and unknowingly spreading HCV. A prophylactic vaccine is therefore needed to control this virus. Thirty years since the discovery of HCV, there have been major gains in understanding the molecular biology and elucidating the immunological mechanisms that underpin spontaneous viral clearance, aiding rational vaccine design. This review discusses the challenges facing HCV vaccine design and the most recent and promising candidates being investigated.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）可导致急性和慢性感染，尽管抗病毒治疗取得了进展，但它仍然是一个全球性问题。目前的治疗方法无法预防再次感染，而且成本高昂，限制了其在发达国家的使用，急性感染的无症状性质可能导致个体未接受治疗并在不知不觉中传播HCV。因此，需要一种预防性疫苗来控制这种病毒。自HCV发现30年来，在了解分子生物学和阐明支持病毒自发清除的免疫机制方面取得了重大进展，有助于合理设计疫苗。本文综述了HCV疫苗设计面临的挑战以及正在研究的最新且有前景的候选疫苗。
