Hepatitis C virus vaccine

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes chronic liver diseases and is a worldwide health problem. It is estimated that still 19,000 cases of new infection per year in USA. It has been difficult to analyze neutralizing immunity against HCV because of the lack of appropriate virus culture system. However, neutralizing antibodies against HCV infection in patient sera were reported using recently developed pseudotype virus and JFH-1 HCV culture systems. A neutralizing antibody induction and a vaccine development are necessary for prophylaxis of HCV infection. Here we summarize the recent progress in basic and clinical research toward the vaccine development for HCV.