Scientists from San Antonio make a breakthrough when they discover a new drug which is said to be greatly effective in curing hepatitis C, a disease that damages the liver of the patient. The hepatitis C virus or HCV is spread by blood to blood contact. Most people infected by the disease do not show any sign or symptoms initially, yet once established, chronic infection can damage the liver. It is estimated that around 300 million people worldwide are infected by hepatitis C.

In a test conducted at the South West Foundation for Biomedical Research, 35 chimpanzees from north-west San Antonio was used to fight against the killing disease. As Chimpanzees are the only animals that can be infected by hepatitis C other than humans, they play a key role in this test.

Over the past few years, Robert Lanford, Ph.D. and his team members had been conducted a half a million study. It is called the locked nucleic acids which is a DNA based therapy that does not directly target the virus, but creates blockage for a molecule in liver that is required for the replication of the virus. In this way, the invader is essentially starved. Result from the study show an amazing 350 fold drop in the virus levels after the treatment. It is more surprising that the virus levels continued to decrease even after 3 months of stopping the therapy.

With the use of liver biopsies, a medical test involving the removal of cells or tissues for examination, scientist found that the livers of the chimpanzees were becoming healthier, even when the experimental therapy was taking place. Lanford added that the best part of the therapy is that no anti-viral resistance was created by the drug.

Santaris Pharma A/S, the company from Denmark which produces the drug, is starting to conduct the test on humans. The company claims that, it will take 3 more years before the drug will become available in the market.

In the mean time, the scientists are happy about what can be a new way for targeting other diseases as well. Lanford said that they already expected that the drug will be effective in lowering HCV levels, but they had no idea that the test will be successful to such a great extent. He said that they feel that it will be a very safe medicine that can be consumed for a long term. As per Lanford’s opinion, this is a key breakthrough.

All around the world, 170 million people are suffering from hepatitis C, which serves as one of the main reasons for liver transplantations. Around 4% of adults in America are infected by the disease and this report should give some new hope to them.