Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a major global health problem. HCV infections are associted with liver cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. Worldwide, there are about 170 million people chronically infected with HCV and this number is growing at an alarming rate of two million new infections annually. Based on a ground-breaking discovery by Dr. Steven Foung's laboratory at Stanford University, and in collaboration with Dr. Foung, IBT is developing a novel series of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against HCV. A unique feature of these antibodies is the ability to prevent the virus from developing resistance. This program is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Selected Publications
Human monoclonal antibodies to a novel cluster of conformational epitopes on HCV E2 with resistance to neutralization escape in a genotype 2a isolate. Keck Z-y, Xia J, Wang Y, Krey T, et al. (2012) PLoS Pathog 8(4): e1002653. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002653.
Structural basis of HCV neutralization by human monoclonal antibodies resistant to viral neutralization escape. Krey T, Meola A, Keck Z-y, Damier-Piolle L, Foung SKH, et al. (2013) PLoS Pathog 9(5): e1003364. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003364.
Neutralization resistance of hepatitis C virus can be overcome by recombinant human monoclonal antibodies. Pedersen J, Carlsen TH, Prentoe J, Ramirez S, Jensen TB, et al. Hepatology. 2013 Nov;58(5):1587-97. doi: 10.1002/hep.26524. Epub 2013 Aug 7..
