January 22, 2008 Harvard Medical School research fellow Yaakov Nahmias, PhD and colleagues first described their discovery that HCV is secreted by infected cells while bound to very low density lipoprotein (vLDL), and that silencing apolipoprotein B (the primary apolipoprotein in LDL) messenger RNA in infected cells results in a 70 percent reduction in the secretion of the virus that is necessary to maintain chronic infection.
An article published online on January 7, 2008 in the journal Hepatology revealed the findings of researchers at Shriners Burns Hospital in Boston and Harvard University that naringenin, a metabolite of the bioflavonoid naringin which gives grapefruit its bitter taste, may help fight the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which is estimated to infect 3 percent of the world's population.
Naringin, which is found in citrus fruits, is metabolized by the body's intestinal bacteria to naringenin, which, in addition to its antioxidant activity, has been shown to reduce plasma cholesterol levels. Acting on previous findings which showed that naringenin inhibited vLDL secretion from the liver, the researchers cultured HCV infected human cells with the flavonoid for 24 hours. The researchers found naringenin inhibited HCV secretion dose-dependently and without toxicity, with an 80% reduction occurring at the highest concentration tested.
"The ability of the liver to regenerate in the context of the RNA-based lifecycle of HCV allows for the potential clearance of the viral infection," the authors write. "It is thought that clearance occurs in about 30% of HCV infected patients. The possible reduction of HCV viral load by inhibiting viral secretion could allow uninfected cells to regenerate, potentially increasing the overall rate of viral clearance."
The researchers suggest that future studies concentrate on naringenin or other flavonoids' long term ability to reduce viral load in animal models as well as human liver cell cultures.
Hepatology: Volume 47, Issue 5, Pages 1437-1445
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