New found tactic in fighting off Hepatitis C

The article I read on Biologynews.net was about why HCV (Hepatitis C) affect some people more than others. Hepatitis infects around 150 million people globally, it is also infamous for being able to avoid the bodies immune system and being able to infect individuals for long periods of time. Currently, we are able to treat this disease with around a 70% success rate. The problem is, is that new strains are popping up that are more resistant to our current methods. It was eventually discovered that some patients were reacting to the treatment much better than others. It was found that the patients that did better had a different DNA code on chromosome 19. There are two variants to this code, the T and the G variants. People who had G variant responded much better to the treatment because they were able to release an interferon called Lambda-3, something people with the T variant were not able to do.

The article aims to explain why some patients were reacting favorably to the treatment while others weren't. It also explains on how the patients with the G variant were able to have their immunsystem be more effective in fighting the virus.

I chose this topic because medical science interests me. I like to learn about diseases and what can be done to counteract them. I guess I like this is because it is almost like fighting a microscopic army that is unrelenting and we are just constantly finding new ways to fight it off.

I liked this post in particular because HCV is one of the most widespread diseases in the word. It is also one of the hardest to treat because of it being so evasive and with new strains popping up. The post shows that we are still making progress against disease despite all of this though. So going back to why I like medical science, this seemed like an obvious choice for me.

Links: Hepatitis C http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/c/cfaq.htm
Article http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2014/02/10/newly_found_tactics_in_offensedefense_struggle_with_hepatitis_c_virus.html

By Alex Fox