What is Hepatitis C’s secret strategy to evade the immune system, a study suggests

Hepatitis C virus produce infection Potentially fatal liver.The disease is spread through contact with human blood, and while the immune system may first attack the invading virus, causing mild symptoms such as fever or fatigue, pathogen finally i know hide The immune system will give up the chase.

This gives hepatitis C time to replicate and spread in healthy liver cells. Now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have discovered the secret strategy the virus uses to attack. Evade the immune system.

As published in the magazine naturethe virus uses “Masking Strategy”and the “mask” covering it are molecules that are already present in the body, which is why “the immune system confuses the virus with harmless substances that it does not need to respond to.”

Jeppe Vinther, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, led the research together with Associate Professor Troels Scheel and Professor Jens Bukh of the Copenhagen Hepatitis C Project.Following this discovery, he noted: “How the hepatitis C virus manages to hide in our liver cells without being detected by the immune system has been a mystery. Our revelation of the virus’s masking strategy is important because it could provide New way to treat viral infections. Other types of viruses may use the same trick. “

“We are in a constant battle against these viruses,” added the expert who studies this pathology. “We are trying to defeat them, while they are trying to avoid detection and failing.” An estimated 50 million people are infected worldwide the virus chronic hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C virus can cause liver inflammation and scarring, and in the worst cases, liver cancer. Discovered in 1989, this pathology is one of the most studied bacteria on Earth. However, how it evades the human immune system and spreads within the body has been a mystery for decades.

Hepatitis C is an RNA virus, just like coronavirus and influenza viruses. Its genetic material consists of RNA, and once the virus enters the host organism, the RNA must be copied in order to invade healthy cells.

For Selina Sagan, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study, the study reveals “a new strategy that viruses use to hide antiviral defenses.” “If hepatitis C is doing this, what other viruses are using similar strategies?” experts asked after learning of the findings.

In fact, Vinther announced that the next step in his research will be Observe other RNA viruses See if they are wearing similar “masks”. “It is realistic to think that other RNA viruses use similar masking techniques to spread without being detected by cellular control systems,” he said.

“All RNA viruses need to evade the immune system, and this is likely just the beginning. Now that we have mastered this trick, it opens the door to developing new and perhaps improved ways to track and treat viral infections in the future,” Vinther concluded. possibility. “

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