Prayers for a Hep C Vaccine Could Be Answered as Early as This Summer
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Hepatitis C instigated a global health crisis by causing chronic liver disease in millions of people worldwide. Thankfully, the pharmaceutical industry has dramatically improved the outlook of Hepatitis C by creating several highly effective treatments. While developing a cure for Hepatitis C infection will help many people stop this disease from causing their liver further harm, it is not a solution for preventing its transmission.
Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B both have preventative vaccines widely available, but a protective vaccine from Hepatitis C is still out of reach.
There are two types of vaccines:
- Therapeutic Vaccine – This is a therapy that fights an existing infection. Therapeutic vaccines trick the immune system into fighting an existing infection.
- Protective Vaccine – These are “shots” to prevent a disease. Protective vaccines prevent infection by stimulating the body’s immune system to produce proteins called antibodies that fight off future infection.
The lack of a Hepatitis C protective vaccine is not for lack of trying. Upon identification of the Hepatitis C virus more than 25 years ago, efforts began to prevent its transmission. However, finding a safe and effective way for the body to produce antibodies to Hepatitis C have been mostly unsuccessful.
Inspiring a shred of hope, a trial driven by the University of Oxford is currently determining the safety and preliminary efficacy of an experimental, Hepatitis C, preventative vaccine. This trial has already enrolled a large sample of participants, and it is slated for completion in the summer of 2018.
Although vaccination is the optimal method of preventing infection, it has proved very difficult to develop an effective vaccine against Hepatitis C due to this virus’s many variations. The Hepatitis C virus occurs in at least six genetically distinct forms (genotypes) with about 50 currently identified subtypes. A Hepatitis C vaccine would have to protect against all the variants of the virus.
Not everyone exposed to Hepatitis C goes on to develop a chronic infection. An estimated 25% of those infected for the first time are able to naturally clear the virus. This statistic suggests that effective immune responses can be mounted against Hepatitis C. Examining the lucky 25% of people able to naturally rid themselves of the Hepatitis C virus revealed that T cells (specialized immune system cells), play a big role in controlling the viral course. Oxford University researchers are aiming their protective vaccine development towards eliciting a similar T cell immune response against the virus.
The researchers:
- developed two different vaccines that were produced by adding genes for various Hepatitis C components to two different viruses.
- used viruses that are replication defective – so they can’t cause disease.
- created these vaccines based on the idea that genetic material is injected into host cells, which then produce viral proteins that stimulate the immune system.
- designed the first vaccine to prime the immune system to be ready for attack, and the second as a booster to enhance the immune response.
The Oxford University researchers tested their vaccines on healthy human volunteers. The T cell responses created were strong, broad, sustained for six months, and were comparable to those seen in individuals that are able to clear infection naturally. The next step is the clinical trial currently underway.
As described in a 2014 edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine, the Oxford-developed vaccine was well tolerated and induced strong and broad immune responses against the Hepatitis C virus. A clinical trial sponsored by University of Oxford with collaborators ReiThera Srl and GlaxoSmithKline is currently assessing the safety and cellular immune response generated by Hepatitis C vaccine candidates AdCh3NSmut and MVA-NSmut. Although this trial is just in Phase I, it represents progress toward developing a protective Hepatitis C vaccine.
With the first efficacy study of a prophylactic Hepatitis C vaccine underway, University of Oxford researchers are paving the future for eradicating this virus. The clinical trial results are expected in July of 2018; and if the results are positive, the wait for a Hepatitis C protective vaccine is getting shorter.
Editor’s Note: For those who cannot afford treatment or who have completed treatment, taking supplements to protect, regenerate, and strengthen your liver is very necessary. If you wish to support your liver naturally, we recommend choosing a company that has been around for decades, complies with all FDA guidelines and good manufacturing processes, like Natural Wellness.
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Related Articles
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02362217, A Study to Assess the Safety of HIV and Hep C Vaccine Candidates When Given Separately or in Combination, Retrieved January 17, 2018, ClinicalTrials.gov, 2018.
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/6/261/261ra153, A human vaccine strategy based on chimpanzee adenoviral and MVA vectors that primes, boosts, and sustains functional HCV-specific T cell memory, Leo Swadling, et al, Retrieved January 17, 2018, Science Translational Medicine, November 2014.
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/new-hepatitis-c-vaccine-shows-promise-human-trials/, New Hepatitis C Vaccine Shows Promise in Human Trials, Retrieved January 17, 2018, IFLS, Inc., 2018.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hepatitis-c/expert-answers/hepatitis-c-vaccine/faq-20110002, Why Isn’t There a Hepatitis C Vaccine?, James M. Steckelberg, MD, Retrieved January 17, 2018, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2018.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27490575, Highly-Immunogenic Virally-Vectored T-cell Vaccines Cannot Overcome Subversion of the T-cell Response by HCV during Chronic Infection, Swadling L, et al, Retrieved January 17, 2018, Vaccines (Basel), August 2016.
7 Comments
My Hep C was cured by Harvoni. there is no way I would ever take or let my children take any Hepatitis C vaccine. A Hep C vaccine is stupid!!!
Patricia, what are you afraid of? The vaccine certainly won’t cause infection and will far less expensive than Harvoni or others. You’re very uninformed to make such a comment. Do your homework before shooting your mouth off.
All vaccines are harmful. Vaccines contain toxic chemicals such as aluminum, thimerosal (mercury derivative), other chemicals, and DNA from animals on which the vaccines are grown. The amounts of each toxic chemical is not consistent from shot to shot, as shown by actual quantitative studies. The vaccine manufacturers have no incentive to improve quality control because they are exempt from lawsuits.
The US government pays the awards through the US Vaccine Court …which awards hundreds of millions of dollars in awards to vaccine injured victims, every years. Many many more vaccine recipients suffer serious adverse effects – without being able to prove it in a court of law.
Pharmaceutical companies cannot guarantee that the vaccine will not give a person Hepatitis C. I got the flu 3 from the flu shot; my brother in law did so also; and others have gotten the flu from the flu shot. Nevertheless, medicine asserts that is impossible. The AMA, CDC, and FDA are not honest; not trustworthy.
I received a liver transplant. Unfortunately,I didn’t receive hep-c treatment with harvoni and ribavirin until after the transplant. I was told I needed to get rid of that because not only does your body attack the new liver, it sees it as a foreign object, but the hep does too! Most studies I’ve read seemed to indicate getting rid of the hep-c before transplantation, if you can live through it,but I’m not a Dr. The regimen of har and riba about killed me with pain. It’s the riba that produces the pain. It even messes up your red blood cell structure. I looked and looked for clinical trials where they’d used that approach in a transplanted patient. I might note that its according to what type hep you have. I had type 2 supposedly which required the riba.
Since I couldn’t find any reports or trials of post trans treatment I called Gil and asked them about whether or not they’d treated anyone post transplant. No, was the answer but I only talked with one person!!! Soooo… I don’t know, actually. What I have been told by “one Dr.”….is the treatment more than likely damaged my new liver and now have liver cirrhosis again. So discuss everything with your Dr and as many knowledgeable people as you can before you do anything!
I might add…I’d had hep-c from Vietnam ( blood exposure and a dirty environment) because blood test indicated something was going on with my liver in the early 70’s, course no-one knew what hep-c was until the ’90’s so I lived with it a long time so don’t panic but get treated soon as possible!!! As they say…” YOU CAN DO IT!”
It seems that I was damed if I did take the treatment, in my mind not knowing it would damage my new liver at the time, course I knew I was damed if I didn’t take the treatment, so don’t let anything I said in my above reply stop you from getting rid of that hep-c! Remember I was told by only one Dr it may have damaged my new liver and I now have cirrhosis again.
Its my understanding that the liver is the only organ that will regrow or repair itself. Supposedly a transplanted one will too…So “PRAY to God for guidance,” live right, exercise, don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself…no alcohol and eat well, of course! Stop with the fatty foods!
Hopefully someone here can answer the question as to whether a trans liver will repair itself.
All of you should know you can get a half liver transplant from a family member ( better match ) and it eventually will grow to normal size, thus regenerating itself, so I’m told.
That said… get rid of that hep-c before you need that transplant!
I agree in not trusting the “new” vaccines, and it will take years to do any reasonable tests. The new drugs available are really good , I was treated with Epclusa and my liver #’s are normal, down 200 , and I’m Hep -C free after 4 weeks of a 12 week treatment !!
With the new drugs for treatment , it’s easy to kill the Hep – C….I was cured in just 4 weeks with Epclusa. So when we can have this affordable , they can stop the disease. I believe I was infected around 1980-85 and owe my ability to stay alive for 30 years to healthy living and herbs, but I’m very thankful for the cure, as it took over 10 months to finally get the new drug…stop drinking !!