Hepatitis C Gains Access to Brain Cells
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The team of virologists found that the endothelial cells in the brain possess the four main protein receptors necessary for the blood-brain barrier to be targeted by HCV.
The findings, which are published online today in Research Highlights in the journal Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology, show that cells other than liver hepatocytes can be vulnerable to HCV infection.
Working with the Manhattan Brain Bank in New York, USA, the researchers, led by Dr Nicola Fletcher, of the University’s School of Immunity and Infection, detected HCV genomic materal in the brains of four of ten infected patients who posthumously donated brain and liver tissue.
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